Our natural heritage

Thursday, June 19, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

While the contention between congressional Democrats and Republicans is almost tangible on such issues as immigration, health care, energy policy and the economy, Congress has managed to find some unlikely common ground — creation of wilderness areas.

Up to one dozen new wilderness areas are expected to be set aside this year, and pieces of legislation proposing at least seven others are in the making.

Certainly, a Congress controlled by Democrats hasn’t hurt. Environmental groups also have increased efforts to forge compromises with opponents, and communities have jumped onboard — tourists and prospective property owners likely find a wild river or a pristine mountain view more desirable than an oil derrick.

Still, opponents point to the stringency of wilderness protections — the most strict afforded under federal law — saying that rising energy prices illustrate that, rather than setting land aside, the government should open up more federal land to exploratory drilling to reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign oil.

That argument, however, doesn’t wash. Gas prices have risen steadily since the 1990s, even as the federal government significantly increased the amount of land open to drilling.

A report issued this month by the House Natural Resources Committee shows that federal drilling permits increased from 3,802 five years ago to 7,561 last year. And of the 91 million federal acres for which drilling leases have been issued, only 23.7 million acres have been put into production.

President Bush called on Congress this week to lift the ban on offshore drilling when, as the House report shows, only 10.5 million acres of the 44 million acres of offshore areas open to drilling are being used.

As the House report says, our nation “simply cannot drill its way to lower prices at the pump.” The avenue to reductions in fuel prices and foreign oil dependency is through better conservation efforts and alternative fuel development — not expanding the destruction of the nation’s precious ecological systems and open space.