No one denies that Anwr, like all Arctic areas, is a fragile environment. As naturalist Barry Lopez observes in Arctic Dreams , truck tracks in the tundra will last for decades. But it is also fact that oil men have devised methods of drilling Arctic turf that leave scarcely a scratch. In winter they build ice roads that disappear in the spring. The latest technology allows oil men to sink wells that travel as far as 5 miles horizontally below the surface, so that far fewer wells are needed.
Facts matter little in a debate that has quasi-religious overtones.
The bill has 108 cosponsors. What's changing, however, and what may derail Vento's bill, is money, increasingly scarce at a time when Congress is trying to cut taxes without really curbing spending. Now, ignoring it is a lack of fiduciary responsibility. It is also ignoring the fact that drilling can now be done with relatively small environmental impact.