Audubon President John Flicker writes about the perils of opening sensitive areas to oil and gas development in this month's Audubon magazine. Excerpts from his "Audubon View":

... There is a myth that environmentalists are preventing the government from leasing huge domestic oil and gas reserves. The facts show otherwise. About 36 billion barrels of oil sit under federal land, and nearly two-thirds of it already is or can be accessible with proper environmental review. In addition, roughly 80 percent of the estimated 89.5 billion barrels of reserves offshore are already available to industry. Though the government has leased more than 90 million acres to oil companies, some 68 million of those acres remain untapped, including promising fields in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. Industry should set its sights on these places, not try to lock up new and more sensitive areas. ...

The bottom line: America has only 3 percent of the world's oil reserves but consumes a quarter of its production. We can't drill our way to energy independence or cheap gas. We need an energy policy focused on innovation to develop alternatives to oil, not a policy of using oil until it runs out. The Stone Age didn't end because people ran out of stones. The next president should set a national goal of converting our transportation fleet to new technologies: hybrid, plug-in hybrid, plug-in electric, fuel cell, and others.

The ongoing debate about energy will determine the quality of the world we leave for future generations. Speak out.

The full article can be read at www.audubonmagazine.org.

You can find more information about the 5-Year Leasing Program at the Minerals Management Service website.