No one could ever accuse Sens. Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins of timidity in bucking their party on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

On Wednesday, Maine’s senators were on the winning side of a 52-48 Senate vote to remove language from the Republican administration’s budget that would have permitted drilling in ANWR.

This isn’t the first time the Senate has taken up this proposal.

It we really want to reduce our dependence on oil, it must be the last.

Drilling in the fragile refuge has been debated for years and, each time it has come up for a vote, has failed because it just doesn’t make sense. It’s too expensive, will take too long and the return is not worth the cost in dollars or threat to the environment.

President Bush appears determined to establish a drilling field in ANWR and, having failed to succeed through proper congressional debate, he sidestepped the process by inserting the drilling plan in the 2004 Budget Resolution.

Wednesday’s vote killed that all-too-transparent ploy. It was a failure for the president but a victory for the democratic process.

The president is correct in his desire to lead America to greater energy independence, especially with the present war in the Middle East, but there are more effective ways to do accomplish that goal.

We could, as Sen. Snowe has repeatedly suggested, close the loophole that exempts SUVs from corporate average fuel economy standards. Doing so would save more barrels of oil per day than we could suck out of the arctic refuge.

We could also stop paying lip service to conservation and commit ourselves to burning less fuel.

To really increase our energy independence we must decrease our dependence on fuel. Drilling in ANWR won’t do that. It will just make us more dependent, giving us permission to continue ignoring the absolute need to conserve.


The homefront
Stephen Woodcock lives in Wilton. He has cancer.

As frightening and painful as this has been, the 50-year-old has been bolstered by the love and support of his family and friends, people who have helped keep his business open and his house in order.

This kind of neighborly response is not out of the ordinary for Maine. This is a state filled with people eager to help one another, happy to share what they can and willing to work hard.

These attributes will become even more important as war progresses, as entire towns worry about sons and daughters overseas and we’ll all occasionally need someone to lean on.

The Woodcock family is fortunate, as are other families across Maine who live in a state where community isn’t just a place, it’s an embrace.


jmeyer@sunjournal.com