The Oil Connections

As Ronald Reagan used to say about recalcitrant members of Congress, “If they don’t see the light, make them feel the heat.” Well, the Exxon Valdez accident has put considerable heat on the Bush Administration and its avid support for oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan Jr., acknowledging the mood of Congress, said there is no chance of Congress passing a bill this year to open up the refuge to the oil industry.

Now it is time for the Administration to see the light and also declare that there will be no oil drilling off the coast of Northern California at least for the duration of George Bush’s tenure in office. The Administration also should delay other proposed oil lease sales along the California coast until the federal government has conducted a thorough review and revision of regulations governing oil- spill containment and cleanup.

The oil industry and top Bush Administration officials have insisted that there was no connection between the Exxon Valdez crude-oil spill and proposed drilling in the wildlife preserve about 100 miles east of Prudhoe Bay, the giant oil development on the Alaskan coast of the Arctic Ocean. But any oil found in the wildlife refuge can get to market by only one route--via a new pipeline over to Prudhoe Bay, down through the trans-Alaska pipeline to the port of Valdez and then by tanker through Prince William Sound to refineries on the West Coast. That seems a tight enough connection.

Even the oil industry’s most influential allies in Congress have given up hope of legislation this year to explore in the refuge. Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and sponsor of a refuge drilling bill, commented: “It is not only politically foolish to push legislation now, it’s foolish from a policy point of view.”

On the House side, Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) returned from three days in Alaska to declare that the accident was “the tragic result of a systematic assault by the oil industry that rendered ineffective the entire system of regulatory safeguards.” Miller, whose subcommittee oversees the Arctic refuge, said there must be a strong authority established to exercise control over accident cleanups. Indeed there must be.

As with the refuge, the Bush Administration might not see any relationship between the Exxon Valdez and drilling off the Northern California coast. But the connection is very real, linked by the federal government’s eagerness to accommodate the oil companies. Rep. Mel Levine (D-Los Angeles) and other California officials have disclosed warnings from federal experts about the potential dangers of drilling off the spectacular Northern California coast. The warnings had been either altered or suppressed altogether within the Department of the Interior.

In one memo, officials of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that the Interior Department’s oil leasing agency had “inaccurately painted a picture of a routine operation with few potential impacts when in fact offshore development in Northern California and the proposed tanker traffic is a high-risk operation in rough seas, in a geologically unstable area, with potentially devastating impacts on coastal resources.” That comment had been deleted from the version of the memo made public. Also censored was the statement that current technology was not capable of cleaning up a spill in the North Coast area.

It’s time to see the light: Drilling, pumping or transporting oil in a wilderness environment must never again be considered routine.