It appears that with the votes of three Democrats (Landreau from oil-industry heavy Louisiana and two from Hawaii apparently because they support the rights of native people to determine how to use local resources) the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge will be opened to oil and natural gas development. Chafee, Snowe, McCain, Coleman, Smith, and Collins were Republicans who opposed.

The interesting thing about this is that the ANWR doesn't have nearly enough oil to make any substantial impact on prices or long-term sustainability of our energy policy. Everyone knows this. Everyone also knows that very very few Americans will ever visit the ANWR. This was a symbolic battle, one that has been going on a long time and it's really about the principle of conservation versus the principle of development. One of the problems in Washington DC is that a lot of the battles fought become similarly divorced from reality, politics operating in it's own ecosystem. The results of such fights don't amount to good governance no matter how they turn out.

How environmental groups react to this symbolic defeat is going to be interesting. There's a real opportunity for environmental advocacy groups to seize the mantle of pragmatism within the realm of energy policy. It will be interesting to see if they take it.