In favor of ANWR drilling...

For what it's worth, here is Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton in the NY Times on the proposed drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

It's largely a fluff piece, but it does get to the heart of some of the arguments. Also, I had no idea that modern techonology lets all the drilling work be done on top of the winter ice [[they build roads out of ice. How cool is that?], so that all work is over by summer, thus protecting the plantlife, etc..

Especially interesting was this factoid:

"If approved by Congress, the overall "footprint" of the equipment and facilities needed to develop the 1002 area would be restricted to 2,000 acres, an area about the size of a regional airport in a refuge the size of South Carolina."

Given that ANWR is "potentially the largest untapped source of oil and gas on American soil," and how dependent we are on foreign oil, it might not be a bad idea to drill there.

I don't say that lightly either, as I'm generally averse to developing protected lands.

[As per usual, NY Times requires a free login.]