A new push for oil

Friday, May 23, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

Using high gas prices as an excuse to pursue drilling on environmentally sensitive lands, the Interior Department issued a report Wednesday extolling “vast untapped oil and natural gas resources” in the United States.

The report claims land owned by the federal government could produce 31 billion barrels of oil and 231 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, but it laments that much of the land is off-limits to drilling.

In a crass statement aimed at consumers’ wallets, the Interior Department called for opening up federal land for drilling as a way to ease prices at the pump. It is questionable whether that would happen if all the areas were opened for drilling. The report doesn’t go into any detail about the economic realities of oil and gas exploration. Left unsaid is whether it would be practical, much less profitable, to drill in any of these areas.

In addition, environmental concerns about drilling are glossed over in the report. For example, the report identifies land near Ventura, Calif., as a prime location to drill without acknowledging the serious damage that years of oil drilling have done along the California coast. The report also lists the potential for oil exploration in northern Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which although off-limits has been coveted by the Bush administration.

Drilling can foul the air, land and ground water, and it is with good reason that the government has outlawed drilling in national parks and other environmentally sensitive areas.

Those prohibitions are the target of this report as the Bush administration, in its waning days, tries to help one of its greatest allies, the oil industry. This mad rush to drill, however, is foolish. America shouldn’t be pushed into an energy policy because of fear-mongering over gas prices. Congress should prevent any effort to drill in those areas.