Not In Our Back Yard

There are 198 billion barrels of oil in America's continental shelves, says the 135 Geological Survey. Should this treasure not be tapped for America's energy needs?

Not in our back yard, says the State of Maine, which claims 200 miles of offshore waters on the basis of a 17th century charter by King Charles; let "them" get the oil from the shale in Colorado. Not in our back yard, say the environmentalists in Colorado, let "them" go for the lowsulfur coal in Wyoming. Not in our back yard, say the population controllers in Wyoming; let ''them get oil offshore in California. Not in our back yard, say the Californian no-growth crusaders, import the oil and refine it on the East Coast.

Not in our back yard, said the town of Durham N.H., last month, rebuffing a $600 million refinery, as did the authorities in Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland and the Virgin Islands. In the old benighted days, if you wanted to conserve land, you would buy it. The modern method is much. simpler: You just legislate away property rights on land that does not belong to you. And you are applauded by Messrs. Chancellor, Cronkite and Reasoner in their nightly brainwashing tirades.

"If the town of Durham loses its fight," said John Chancellor, "something precious will have been lost to all of us."

Now when Mr. Chancellor gazes with his calf-like eyes at 50 million viewers, he does so through a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. The rims are made from a petroleum product, but the refinery that made it fouled somebody else's back yard. Mr. Chancellor and the Durham City Council eat food grown with fertilizers made from petroleum products. But in somebody else's back yard. The clothes they wear are made from petroleum-derived fibers directly, or ultimately from plants grown with petroleum derived fertilizers. In somebody else's back yard. Drugs, buildings, heat, light, paper, thumb tacks, clavichords, you name it; there is nothing beyond a little high-minded drivel that can be had without somebody's back yard.

Mr. Chancellor and the Durham City Council seem willing enough to take advantage of all those necessities and conveniences, provided they are produced in somebody else's back yard.

There is a word for creatures who have this attitude. Parasites.