Drilling for oil

Excellent Letter to the Editor in The Orlando Sentinel:

Regarding your Thursday article, "Senator plans new arctic-drilling tactic": There are so many reasons why drilling should never be allowed in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. ANWR is home to a huge abundance of diverse wildlife (such as caribou, rare musk oxen, grizzlies and migratory birds) that deserve to have a place to live and breed.

The mean estimate of economically recoverable oil available in ANWR is just 3.2 billion barrels, or less than what the United States consumes in six months. By increasing the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks by three miles per gallon, we could save five times the amount of oil that the refuge might produce. Also, 95 percent of Alaska's Arctic coastal lands are already available for oil exploration and development.

But the most important reason is this: Some things are just intrinsically wrong, from a moral and ethical standpoint. Wrong like partial-birth abortion. Wrong like human cloning. Destroying 1.5 million acres of pristine Arctic habitat just so President Bush can do a favor for his oil industry cronies and so automakers don't have to raise the fuel efficiency of their vehicles is one of those things. It's morally wrong, period.

Jennifer Thomas-Larmer

Orlando