Do the prep work for oil drilling in Alaska

In all likelihood, President Bush will sign the energy measure, even without ANWR drilling authority, which was the centerpiece of the administration's energy package.

The Democratic leadership in the Senate was able, through a procedural vote, to forestall any action on drilling in the Alaskan refuge where, conservationists contend, oil exploration would endanger the environment and ruin a national treasure. The refuge isn't exactly pristine, given the human encroachment that already exists there. And the arguments against ANWR drilling have familiar overtones dating back to opposition against the Alaskan pipeline. And the proposed ANWR drilling would affect less than one-hundreth of 1 percent of the 19-plus million acres in the refuge.

Several Democrats, including Missouri's U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan, explained their opposition to ANWR drilling in terms of a time lag. They said oil from the refuge wouldn't help the current U.S. dependence on foreign oil, because it would take 10 years of preparation before drilling could actually begin.

Indeed, no one knows for sure how much oil might be extracted from the refuge. Only one exploratory well has been drilled on private property, and the results haven't been made public. But there is a vast amount of knowledge from the nearby Prudhoe Bay area that indicates a substantial amount of U.S. oil is beneath the refuge.

Meanwhile, the Senate's energy bill has another component worth mentioning.

It is a requirement that would triple the use of ethanol in gasoline. The Senate's majority leader, Tom Daschle, is from corn-rich South Dakota, where farmers would love to see this market grow. So would corn growers in Missouri and other grain-producing states in the Midwest.

Ethanol opponents say any requirement for the additive would increase the cost of gasoline and create shortages as refineries struggle to meet the new standards. But Daschle is right when he says these claims are "dead wrong."

Obviously, it is in America's best interests to look at all sources of fuel, ethanol and Alaskan drilling included. One intermediate step Congress could take would be to authorize the preparatory work involved with ANWR drilling -- the work that is expected to take a decade -- without making a final decision on actual drilling until there is more exploratory data. Any further delays in allowing these tests simply puts off what could become crucial access to this oil for another 10 years.