LETTERS: FUEL EFFICIENCY, NOT DRILLING, IS KEY TO ENERGY

To the editor:

Undermining conservation, President Bush has delayed by two months activation of the proposed National Forest Roadless Area Rule. This seems designed to provide time to reverse the wishes of voters who have frequently indicated support for protecting our national forests.

Secretary Norton also reiterated Bush's eagerness to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. This, however, is not an environment that can tolerate such development. Had it the best of intentions, the oil industry carries too long a record of causing environmental catastrophe to be permitted to plunder our national treasures.

Bush and Norton pretend that drilling the Arctic refuge will resolve California's energy problems or lower oil prices, a fraud designed to promote the interests of friends in the oil lobby. But less than 1 percent of California's energy comes from burning oil. Furthermore, Arctic oil would not be on line for more than 10 years. This oil, amounting to a tiny drop in the global oil bucket, would do nothing to affect global oil prices.

As the administration works to plunder our treasures, it seems to forget that the United States has less than 3 percent of the world's known oil reserves.

If we drilled the entire nation, we still wouldn't meet our current oil demand or affect oil prices. Energy independence could be better achieved through promoting conservation and alternative energy sources. Achieving greater fuel efficiency in Detroit and elsewhere would be a superior strategy to plundering wildlife refuges and national parks. Federal policy should recognize and reflect this reality rather than serve the oil lobby.

ALAN JOURNET

Cape Girardeau