WATCHING WASHINGTON ENVIRONMENTAL EXTREMISM

With Patrick Crow It will be interesting to see whether environmental forces can divide and conquer U.S. energy policy legislation. Deputy Energy Sec. Henson Moore told an American Bar Association meeting in Atlanta "environmental extremism" is threatening the legislation.

Aug. 19, 1991

3 min read

It will be interesting to see whether environmental forces can divide and conquer U.S. energy policy legislation.

Deputy Energy Sec. Henson Moore told an American Bar Association meeting in Atlanta "environmental extremism" is threatening the legislation.

Moore said, "It is a great deal easier to focus public attention on one immediate aspect of a problem or issue-'no power generating plant in my backyard'-than to explain the complex interplay of energy development, economic growth, quality of life, and the long term social cost to every community across America if we don't make timely public policy decisions.

"This problem of addressing important national issues piecemeal is among the most pressing challenges we face as a nation today. The very concept of 'common interest' has been largely lost in the rush to represent special interests. Individual rights are exalted with no corresponding consideration of the social responsibilities or duties of citizenship."

Moore said environmental groups want to make radical changes in the American way of life under the guise of environmental protection.

This trend is clear in arguments used against even the most limited development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"Critics have seized upon an objective we all share-protecting the environment-in an effort to promote a no growth, no development agenda," Moore said. "Although we are talking about development in less than 1% of ANWR, one Wilderness Society official recently characterized it as 'going in and destroying the heart of the ecosystem.' "

Elihu Bergman, executive director of Americans for Energy Independence, made a similar point last week in a talk at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Orlando, Fla.

He said environmental activists are conjuring draconian scenarios about the fate of the arctic wilderness based neither on experience nor good science. "In the process they resort to absurdities such as the Wilderness Society president's comparison of ANWR to Yosemite as a potential tourist mecca."

Bergman said only a few persons would endure the spongy, inhospitable ANWR with its hordes of mosquitoes in the short summer and subfreezing temperatures in the winter.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE

Moore offered another example: "In the Lower 48 states, about two thirds of our national forests are theoretically available for oil and gas leasing under the multiple use mandate governing forest management. Our country would clearly benefit from increased domestic oil production, and industry is interested in leasing. Despite all these positive factors, however, only 11 million acres are under lease for oil and gas development today. This is down from a peak of 35 million acres under lease just 8 years ago and is likely to continue declining as long as environmental pressures render legal multiple use provisions moot.

"At the same time, we are shutting in 17,000 domestic oil wells each year and watching jobs and dollars flow out of this country for foreign oil. If we do nothing to change the status quo, we could be importing 65% or more of our oil by shortly after the turn of the century. "

Moore said there is no one answer to the nation's energy needs: not ANWR, not offshore leasing, not conservation.

"But they are all threads of the same fabric. Remove one and the fabric begins to unravel," he warned.