Not surprisingly, environmentalists screamed bloody murder. Nonetheless, the Reagan Administration’s approach to OCS oil and gas leasing was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Environmental groups were not to be denied, however; soon, their congressional allies adopted a moratorium to prevent energy leasing on portions of the OCS. Then, President George H.W. Bush, to validate his claim to being a “kinder and gentler” environmental leader, withdrew a majority of the OCS. President Clinton followed suit.
Today Congress is working on a repeal of the Bush/Clinton ban. Sadly, it is not because Congress recognizes that energy prices are high, that oil supplies are low, or that what we use comes from unstable or unfriendly countries. Instead, Congress fears Cuba’s plans to drill on the OCS and its affect on U.S. resources. Not surprisingly, environmental groups have launched a nationwide campaign to kill the proposal. Plus, Congress, responding to demands from environmental groups, refuses to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration. Finally, late last week, a federal judge halted leasing of a part of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska thought to contain 2 billion barrels of oil; environmental groups said more migratory bird and calving caribou studies are needed.
As another summer ends and winter approaches, the imaginative, innovative, and indefatigable folks of the oil patch, who accomplished what many thought impossible, have shown that Brookes and Simon were right. Meanwhile, Congress and environmental groups are casting their lot with Paul Harvey’s long ago pessimist.