Ad War Breaks Out Over Arctic Drilling

“What do you call someone who would drill our Arctic Wildlife refuge where there is hardly any oil?

“Mr. President.”

This is just part of a $650,000 television advertising campaign that U.S. environmental groups unveiled Tuesday to battle a Republican proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

In a move to influence members of Congress, who will vote this year on the legislation, the coalition of environmental groups is buying a series of television ads that urges viewers to write and call their senators to help defeat the bill.

The television ad campaign, which claims drilling in the Arctic refuge is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, will be seen in major U.S. cities such as New York and Los Angeles as well as in Indiana, Nebraska, Oregon, Arkansas and Louisiana.

This is now war, advertising war, as the green campaign is close on the heels of last week’s $200,000 campaign by a coalition of businesses, trade associations and labor groups to promote what they claim can be environmentally responsible exploration of the refuge’s 1.5 million-acre coastal plain.

Using old film footage of the long lines at gasoline stations during the 1970s, the pro-drilling advertisement shows and tells viewers the U.S. is more dependent on foreign oil than during that energy crisis.

The solution: drilling in the Arctic refuge. “Geologists say it could be the largest supply of oil ever discovered in America,” the announcer says.

Opening the Arctic refuge for drilling has sparked a fierce political debate in Washington, where it is supported by President Bush, a former Texas oilman. Senate Republicans last month introduced a broad package of energy measures, with drilling in the potentially lucrative Alaskan lands a centerpiece of the policy.

Environmentalists and many Democrats have vowed to block any attempt to open the refuge to drilling, saying the wildlife there needs protection.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge, describes it as “one of the finest examples of wilderness left on the planet.”

Environmentalists plan to launch a second commercial in the next few days but in different cities and states.