Plugged Pipeline

More and more Congressmen and businessmen go about cursing the darkening clouds of the energy crisis, yet nothing has been done to light a candle of hope that sits in the nation's backyard --the Alaska pipeline. The oil reserves under Alaska's North Slope remain as frozen in controversy today as they were when the 789-mile pipeline to the ice-free port of Valdez was first proposed in 1969. The line has been stalled in part by environmental issues. Tanker traffic would almost certainly result in oil spillage and leaks from the pipeline--it would traverse three earthquake zones--could endanger the ecology of the arctic tundra. Yet the conservationists' biggest weapon turned out to be a narrow technicality: the required right of way would exceed the legal maximum 54-ft. width. The Administration looked to the Supreme Court to get around that legal scruple, but last week the court refused to review a lower-court decision upholding the law. Now the pipeline proposal will be bucked to Congress, where it may create as big a furor as the SST.

Since the pipeline issue is of vital national interest, the entire subject should be argued in the widest possible public debate. At least one alternative merits consideration: a longer pipeline from Alaska to the Midwest through Canada's Mackenzie Valley. Such a project could not only tap Canada's vast reserves but also move both countries toward a continent-wide policy for the development and use of energy.

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