ANWR: An Issue of National Security

By Hugh Hewitt

"About two dozen House Republicans are said to be prepared to desert the GOP caucus on the issue of exploring the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge for the vast amounts of oil that might lay below the tundra. Despite the tiny imprint the exploration would leave and despite the enormous advances in technology that make such drilling very safe indeed, these Republican House members reject exploration as unnecessary even in an era of tight supply and three-dollar-a-gallon gas.

Exploration in ANWR is both an economic and a national security issue of the highest rank--a crucial strategic resource that we must at least understand and fully map against disruption in the Middle East or Venezuela, and the extreme hardship such disruptions could work on our national economy and national security.

The House leadership ought to announce the names of those members who could not be counted on to vote for this crucial measure so that the electorate is fully informed of which members they may choose not to support in 2006.