
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 22, 1995                   TAG: 9511220036
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ARCTIC VOTE

THE COASTAL plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the calving ground of caribou, the denning habitat of polar bears, the nesting place of migratory birds from six continents. It also is the last piece of Alaska's 1,000-mile Arctic coastline that is not open to oil drilling.

Congress has voted to change that.

The budget reconciliation bill passed by both houses includes a provision that would open up for drilling this delicately balanced, unspoiled wilderness (which is not, by the way, comparable to the Ellett Valley).

Whatever the revenue from oil leases - and proponents have probably exaggerated it many times over - the American public long has opposed with good reason the degradation of this land for drilling, which already is allowed on 90 percent or more of the coastline.

Virginia's Republican Sen. John Warner, who has received $79,475 in campaign contributions from the oil industry since the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, is among the U.S. Senators who voted to keep the drilling provision in the reconciliation bill.

Sen. Chuck Robb, to his credit, voted against keeping the provision.

President Clinton has said he will veto any bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. He should make good on that pledge.

by CNB