I want to congratulate U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.) for the critical role he played in forcing House leadership to drop the disastrous proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

The Garden Club of America has long opposed opening the refuge to oil drilling because:

1. Drilling would spoil our last great wilderness, a fragile swath of tundra that teems with staggering numbers of birds and animals, for a speculative amount of oil that would have little effect on high gas prices. In fact the U.S. Department of Energy recently estimated that if we drilled for oil in the refuge tomorrow, it would lower gas prices by only a penny and would take at least 10 years for that gas to reach the pumps.

2. Drilling would have a profound impact on this country. It should be decided on its own merits, in its own bill with full public debate. Since the 1950s, the American public has opposed drilling in the refuge. Hiding the drilling provision in a budget reconciliation bill does not serve the public interest.

3. Drilling would only distract Congress and the American people from the reality of our nation's energy crisis. We need new, smarter kinds of energy sources, such as the biodiesel plant in Schuylkill County. Let's look to American ingenuity for the solution to our country's 21st-century energy demands.