'Give Them an Inch' Alert

With the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas companies now all but an unfortunate certainty, a piece in today's Christian Science Monitor is enough to make this RINO sick to his stomach. "Arctic oil search moves to new turf, new controversies," the headline reads - and the article by Yereth Rosen goes on to describe how two additional protected areas in Alaska, Teshekpuk Lake and the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, suddenly "represent one of the next crucial frontiers in the nation's expanding energy wars."

Rosen: "Though long eyed by development interests, the Teshekpuk and Yukon sites are attracting new attention from the Bush administration and energy companies as oil prices spike and new technology makes it more economical to drill in remote areas." Teshekpuk lake and its shores, a major habitat for molting geese during the summer months, was deemed "too sensitive" for drilling even by James Watt, Reagan's "famously pro-development Interior secretary." But now, the Bush Administration's Bureau of Land Management plans to open the area for leasing to oil and gas companies.

The CSM article goes into great geological and political detail about both Teshekpuk and the Yukon Flats proposals, and includes a map of the affected regions.