No drilling in Alaska!...Oh wait, never mind.

There has been a little snag in W. Bush's plan to drill in the Alaskan wildlife refuge. Of course the reason the plan has been put on hold is not because of environmental impact, no no, it's because "The Republican lawmakers were concerned the provision permitting oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) would jeopardize approval of a larger budget bill." I would like to think that maybe they'll come to their senses and leave the refuge alone, but realistically I think it's a done deal because "...the setback doesn't mean the Alaska proposal is dead; the Senate has included the provision in its budget bill." Elsewhere in the article it mentions that there might be about 30 years worth of oil in the refuge and George W. wants it in order to ease his dependency on the Middle East. I understand that this is a lot of oil, but in 30 years it will be gone, and the refuge will be forever scarred. How high a price are we willing to pay to clutch desperately to a non-renewable resource? We already have the technology to make engines that don't run off of traditional resources and are much more environmentally sound, and yet we continue to plod along using an outdated system. We can't convert overnight, change is gradual, but we have to start somewhere.