Environmentalists are running scared these days. They fear that President Bush will cash in on the political capital that he earned from his Administration's masterful handling of the so-called "War on Terror."

Ridin' high

Enjoying a 90 percent popularity rating, Bush may try to roll back environmental regulations and push for the "dig and drill" energy policy developed by Vice President Dick Cheney and "retired" Enron CEO Ken Lay. [Bush apparently is no longer tight with his former bud, "Kenny Boy." That's since the President found out that his mother-in-law lost more than $8,000 on her investment in Enron.]

Environmentalists long for the pre-Sept. 11 days when many of Bush's energy proposals were expected to be trashed and rightfully called paybacks to the energy companies that bankrolled the President's campaign. Now they are not so smug.

National security = ANWR oil?

The Administration is pegging a national security theme to its resource development theme. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is being pitched as a way to reduce U.S. dependence on oil from the Middle East.

It doesn't matter that ANWR would only supply a mere drop in the bucket of this country's energy needs.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the Arctic Refuge holds only 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil - less than what the nation uses in six months.

When spread over the 50 years of the field's lifetime, it is estimated that ANWR would contribute less than one percent of the oil the U.S. is projected to consume in that time.

Abraham says every drop of ANWR oil counts.

So what, replies Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. He wrote an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal that said ANWR drilling can hold secure the country's energy future.

"The House knows - and the Senate would agree if allowed to vote on it - that ANWR would reinforce energy security by increasing domestic oil production," he wrote.

"Just consider: The mid-range estimates for reserves in ANWR are the equivalent of 10 years of oil from the Persian Gulf.

"That's 10 years to let diplomacy work in the event of a serious disruption in supply. That's not a bad investment," wrote the former Michigan Senator.

Brook Simmons of the office of Sen. Don Nichols (R-Okla.) set us straight on the need to drill in ANWR.

"The U.S. gets most of its oil from overseas and that puts America at a great security risk," said Simmons, Communications Director for Nichols. "We need to think about correcting that problem, and ANWR is one way to do that. Opening that small amount of land to drilling and exploration is vitally important to securing America's future," added Simmons.

Deborah Louison, APCO Worldwide's senior VP/director of global services, seconded the need to drill. "I think 9/11 has underlined the need to look at energy sources other than the Middle East," Louison told this website. "Bush is more likely to be supportive of an increase in the exploration and development of domestic energy sources.

If it's explained to the public that there's an absolute need for further development of our own oil resources, they should be more supportive of a new energy plan," said Louison, a former Energy Dept. staffer in the first Bush Administration.

Unreliable Saudis

Can America count on Saudi Arabia to pump out as much oil as the it needs to power its fleet of SUVs? How can the U.S. count Saudi Arabia as a reliable supplier when 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were from the Kingdom?

Saudi Arabia also bankrolls fundamentalist Islamic "schools" through the world that spew out hatred of all things Western and mainly American.

Time is running out for the royals

That risk will only grow when America decides "enough is enough" and pulls out its 5,000 troops that are stationed there.

What other purpose do those troops have other than to protect the royal family and the cash it earns from oil? The Saudis refuse to let the U.S. use American forces or facilities as a staging area against any Muslim nation–other than Iraq. That's because Saddam Hussein is the tough guy in the neighborhood who could send the Saudi family packing to live in luxurious exile in London, Paris or Rome.

So when the U.S. pulls out, it's bye-bye royals, hello to a Taliban-like government that is not likely to play footsie with the multinational oil crowd.

The White House plans to score big with the national security argument about the need to reduce exposure to the unstable Middle East.

Russia may be a good energy partner now, but there is no guarantee that its future governments will be eager to supply the West with oil.

So Bush's dig and drill pitch may strike a cord. But it shouldn't, if environmentalists can get their act together on pushing the conservation argument.

Get conservation message out

Greens should sing about the merits of conservation loud and clear.

The Sierra Club is among leading groups to refute the point that drilling and digging are in America's national security interest. The organization ran an ad earlier this month that called for a 21st Century national energy policy designed to make the country more secure while protecting the environment. Conservation is key to that approach. As Sierra Club executive VP Carl Pope likes to point out, "Americans can save billions of dollars at the gas pump and conserve more oil than we import from the Persian Gulf" by applying technology to increase fuel mile standards on cars and trucks.

Happy now, but pollution danger lurks

The Sierra Club says that increasing auto fuel economy standards to an average 40 miles per gallon would "cut global warming pollution by 600 million tons, save consumers $45 billion in gas and save one billion barrels a year."

The Natural Resources Defense Council is singing that same tune. It notes that the U.S. imports half of its oil needs, and that an increase in domestic drilling isn't going to remedy that situation.

"Sixty-five percent of the world's known reserves lie beneath the Persian Gulf. If we do not act, the share of our oil that is imported will grow from one-half to nearly two-thirds by 2020," notes a report by the NRDC and the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Middle East instability makes for a situation that could change at any moment."

The report notes that drilling the ANWR would increase world reserves by one-third of one percent. "That makes an energy strategy based only on drilling for new oil at home into a recipe for continued dependence on unstable regions."

The NRDC and UCC propose a mix of increased fuel standards, mass production of hybrid gasoline-electric cars (like those made by Toyota and Honda), hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars, and more production from renewable energy sources as the way to cut this country's "dangerous addiction" to oil.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry introduced his own "energy security" plan on Jan. 22 as an alternative to Cheney/Lay's dig and drill plan.

Sen. Kerry raps Cheney-Lay energy plan as old-fashioned thinking.

The Democrat said of Cheney/Lay: "Old thinking passed through the doors of 1600 Pennsylvania far more often and easily than new thinking. Exxon Mobil, Enron or Chevron enjoyed an access bonanza at the expense of consumers and state-of-the-art environmental technology manufacturers."

As a result, "those most heavily invested in the current energy system have set a course for the future which, not surprisingly, champions status quo policies at the expense of new ideas and innovation.

"What's worse, President Bush's claims that prolonging the status quo will somehow ensure ‘energy independence' for America, and his party's leaders happily echo his cry–as if by embracing their lack of vision we'd all be able to sit back, relax, and put our fleet of international oil tankers in drydock," said Kerry.

He proposes conservation and the use of new technologies to save energy and improve efficiencies.
Environmentalists and Kerry must keep the heat on Bush.
Popularity is fickle. Bush Senior enjoyed high marks following the Gulf War, and wound up getting clobbered by Bill Clinton when the economy tanked.

Dubya's popularity will sink like a rock in the event that Osama bin Laden resurfaces and taunts the U.S.

Bush's worst nightmare is to be ridiculed by Osama just like dad was tortured by Saddam after he prematurely declared victory in the Persian Gulf war and let Hussein continue his development of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons that may be used to get even with the U.S.

Conservation and better energy efficiencies are the best ways to cut dependence on foreign oil.