President Bush Renews Calls for Oil Exploration in ANWR - Green America

"...let me start first by telling you that America has got to change its habits. We've got to get off
oil."

President Bush made these remarks on March 5, 2008. He was speaking at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference. But now the president is singing a different song. During a press conference held on April 29, Mr. Bush renewed calls for oil exploration and drilling in the long protected Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Back in March, the president identified a number of reasons why America should be working to become less dependent from oil by investing in clean, renewable sources of energy.

One reason was national security:

"The dependency upon oil also puts us at the mercy of terrorists. If there's tight supply and demand, all
it requires is one terrorist disruption of oil and that price goes even higher. It's in our interests to
end our dependency on oil because it -- that dependency presents a challenge to our national security."

The president also raised concerns about the environment and global warming:

"And finally, our dependence on fossil fuels like oil presents a challenge to our environment. When we
burn fossil fuels we release greenhouse gases. The concentration of greenhouse gases has increased
substantially."

And the president has done more than just talk about the problem of oil. He has plan to reduce oil
consumption in the United States by 20 percent over the next 10 years:

"I laid out a goal for the United States to reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next 10
years -- that's called 20-10 [sic]. By the way, that's in the face of a growing economy - to reduce gasoline usage by 20 percent over 10 years."

But President Bush has apparently forgotten about his committment to help America get off oil. Once again, George W. Bush is showing that he is first and foremost an oil man. For decades the oil industry has worked to push legislation through Congress that would allow oil exploration and production to take place inside of protected ANWR. And each time they have failed. That hasn't stopped the president from floating the idea once again.

"And we'll look at any idea in terms of energy. Except, I will tell you this: that if Congress is truly
interested in solving the problem, they can send the right signal by saying we're going to explore for oil
and gas in the U.S. territories, starting with ANWR," the president told reporters at the April 29 press
conference. "We can do so in an environmentally friendly way."

ANWR presents the president with politically convenient solution to the problem posed by rising oil
prices. He would love to blame environmentalists and their supporters in Congress for the current oil
crisis. After all, doing so would shift responsibility for away from the White House.

The president would rather play the blame game than acknowledge the role that he has played in creating the current oil crisis. Concerns about instability in the Middle East have helped to drive up oil prices over the past few years. The Bush administration's war in Iraq is the root of many of these concerns.

By pushing the ANWR issue at this point in his presidency, Mr. Bush is essentially attempting to dodge the bullet on this issue. He knows that ANWR is a contentious issue that once placed on the table is unlikely to be resolved by the end of his administration. By playing the ANWR card, the president can also pacify his allies oil industry. 

The president claims that opening ANWR will lead to lower gas prices, or "more oil = lower gas prices".
Unfortunately, this simplistic economic equation does not adequetely capture the complexities that dictate oil prices. Global demand for oil will continue to grow at an unprecedented rate and stability in the Middle East is not expected any time soon. We can expect gas prices to remain high in the future.

Mr. Bush would love to ignore the fact that a long protected and cherished wildlife refuge even exists in
Alaska. During the April 29 press conference he did not once utter the name "Artic National Wildlife Refuge", prefering to refer to the place only as "ANWR". It was as if he feared that using the
words "refuge" or "wildlife" would somehow taint his efforts to portray the refuge as nothing more than a giant dollar sign.

The president sought to reassure the public that oil exploration in ANWR could be done in an
environmentally friendly way. But he was careful to avoid any mention of the toll that oil drilling and
oil production would take on ANWR's fragile and unique ecosystem. As is the norm with this administration, knowing what the president did not say is every bit as important as knowing what he did say.

"We've got to get off oil," the president said once. He should stick to his guns on this one. America is country built on innovation. It is time to accept the fact that the age of oil is coming to a close. Cheap oil helped make this country great. But cheap oil is a thing of the past. It is time for a new revolution in this country, a clean energy revolution. And this is not a revolution that will start in ANWR.

Green America is a new weekly column about environmental politics by Gather political correspondent
David Anderson. You can read and comment on past and current editions of the column at the group Green America.