McCain Opposes Drilling in ANWR

I posted previously on the energy bill and the increased costs to new cars that will result from higher fuel efficiency standards. Those new fuel standards wouldn't even be necessary if we could just get the Democrats...and some Republicans to allow us to drill for oil in areas where we already know it exists, such as the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR).

If you're looking for sanity on this issue from John McCain, look elsewhere. Here was his statement on the issue during a blogger conference call on Wednesday:

As far as ANWR is concerned, I don’t want to drill in the Grand Canyon, and I don’t want to drill in the Everglades. This is one of the most pristine and beautiful parts of the world.

That's just nonsense. One expert in drilling techonology and ANWR stated that if ANWR were the size of a football field, including the end zones, the size of the area needed to drill on in order to get at all the oil would be the size of a single postage stamp. I think we can afford to make that small of an impact on a "pristine" area.

UPDATE 8/29/08: Now that McCain has chosen Sarah Palin for his VP, I think you can pretty much count on a reversal on his ANWR stance.