We go through the same routine every few years when oil prices rise. Republicans and their big oil benefactors assure us that opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas production will cure whatever ails us: dependence on foreign oil, high oil prices, soaring gasoline prices.
The drumbeat has started again as gasoline prices have pushed toward $4 per gallon. Here’s the President in his Rose Garden press conference this morning, where he made ANWR the centerpiece of his political and policy arguments for our energy dilemma:
So in the interest of once again knocking down this bamboozlement, here’s a decent Reuters rundown on why, independent of any environmental protection considerations, the President’s arguments don’t add up.
