Who needs Gale Norton anyway?

How nice of the nation’s secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, to support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a.k.a. ANWR.

Sunday’s Times op-ed page carried Norton’s “Call of the Mild” commentary that argued technology would mitigate impacts on a “sliver” of ANWR. (Read her piece.)

Frankly, I’d expect this from the secretary of Commerce, not the Interior boss. But she’s from Colorado, and many Westerners think natural resources ought to be “utilized” rather than “preserved.”

Times readers shot back. (Read the letters.)

Environmentals say the amount of oil recoverable from ANWR amounts to about 10 days’ consumption in the U.S.

I doubt I’ll ever see the Alaskan refuge. But the image of wilderness, pristine and unspoiled, is a necessary antidote to the stresses of modern, “civilized” life.

I need to know it’s there. I don’t want to trade that knowledge for 10 days’ worth of oil.