Tanks for Nothing

Environmentalists are pressuring the Department of the Interior to list the polar bear as an endangered species. As the price of gas shows us, though, the real endangered species these days is the American motorist. And, if environmentalists succeed, that problem will only worsen.

[if listed] There would be virtually no chance to open up even a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), an area estimated to contain 10 billion barrels of oil. That’s enough to replace what we’ll import from Saudi Arabia over the next 15 years. [additionally] ...vast areas off Northwest Alaska estimated to contain 15 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas would also be made off limits.

Unfortunately, new energy exploration isn’t the only activity that would run afoul of a polar-bear endangerment listing. Environmentalists want to use fears about global warming to limit our country’s energy use. Otherwise, they warn, the polar bear’s icy habitat could become a watery grave...

What the United States faces today isn’t an energy crisis. We’ve got plenty of sources of energy, enough oil, natural gas and coal to provide all our electricity for a century - and that's not counting nuclear power. Yet, even as the price of gasoline has soared, we haven’t built a new petroleum refinery since 1976. We haven’t opened a nuclear power plant in two decades.

The problem today is a crisis of confidence. We’re not willing to expand our domestic sources of energy, even though we know we can protect the environment while also drilling for oil or refining gasoline. Unless our government allows us to expand our energy supplies, we’d better get used to overpaying at the pump.

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