Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 8

star Opinion A8 Star-Tribune, Casper, Wyo. Monday, January 5, 1987 5 Ssper tar-bune Interior conjures oil under Arctic refuge 170 Star lane, Box 80, Casper, WY 82602 307-266-0500 The Casper Daily Tribune Est. Oct. 9, 1916 by J. E.

Hanway The Casper Star Est. in 1949 USPS 092-660 Published daily. Second Class Paid at Caspar, Wyo. 82601 by Howard Publications, Inc. Copyright 1987, Casper Star-Tribune doubts about their department's ability to predict the presence of oil reserves.

On the other hand, they also know how to make those oil reserves vanish. It's a very simple process. Just mutter the incantation "environmental impact analysis of full-field development" and the people over at Interior will assure you that the oil field is no longer there. In fact, the ability to perform have refused to perform such studies'. They argue that it is impossible to predict whether or not oil or gas will be found and developed.

A full-scale environmental analysis would be a waste of money, given the minute chance than any lease or group of leases contains reserves worth developing, the agencies maintain. It is not hard to imagine Morn's "supergiant oil field" disappearing as soon as someone calls for a detailed analysis of what the ef- By conveniently ignoring the facts in his department's own report, Horn was able to transform a one-in-five chance of finding oil into a 'supergiant oil WASHINGTON The Reagan administration has thrown a magic routine into the middle of the ongoing musical farce that it passes off as an energy policy. This act is called "The Phantom Oil Field It stars some of the top officials in the Department of Interior. These officials apparently have developed the ability to make oilfields appear and disappear virtually at will. The latest version of this natural Andrew Melnykovych resource conjuring routine was performed late last year, when William Horn, assistant interior secretary for fish and wildlife, announced the department's plans for oil drilling in a wildlife refuge in northeast Alaska.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a 19-million-acre tract bordering the Arctic Ocean. It has wildlife resources that are found nowhere else in the United States. Chief among them is the Porcupine caribou herd, the largest in North America. It's calving grounds are in the 1.5 million acres of the refuge's coastal plain that would be opened to drilling. Grizzly and polar bears, wolves and musk oxen are permanent residents of the area.

Millions of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds nest in the refuge every summer. v5 But it is what supposedly lies under the refuge that interests Horn. Although his job title might lead one to believe otherwise, Horn is after oil. To that end, he announced in November that the Arctic NWR sits alop the biggest undiscovered oil reserves in the United States. Horn said there is an even chance of finding 3.2 billion barrels of oil and a 95 percent chance of finding at least 600 million barrels.

He talked about the prospect of a "supergiant oil field." On that basis, Horn said he will recommend thai his boss, Interior Secretary Donald Hodel, approve opening the entire coastal plain to oil and gas exploration. Hodel is expected to go along, and pass his recommendation on to Congress, which has the final say. The magical aspect of all of this comes in the way Horn was able to conjure up the prospect of vast oil reserves where it is likely that none exist. According to the same Interior Department report trumpeted by Horn, there is only a 19 percent chance of discovering ANY OIL AT ALL in the refuge's coastal plain. Horn's figures were based on estimates of the likely size of the oil field if and only if such a field really exists.

By conveniently ignoring the facts in his department's own report, Horn was able to transform a one-in-five chance of finding oil into a "supergiant oil field." Now that's what I call magic. When the conservation groups made an issue of the discrepancy, Hodel dismissed the objections as a "red herring." Hodel and Horn (and Houdini?) evidently have no Robin Hurlets Publisher Richard C. High Editor to divide Congress? islation. The absence of large-scale positive legislative goals suggests the intellectual and political depletion that has. overtaken the administration.

But it does not by itself guarantee that the Democratic Congress will be able to impose an agenda of its own. That depends on the skill and cohesion of the new Democratic Senate under Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd and the strength of the new House Speaker, Jim Wright (D-Texas), who has gotten off to a stumbling start with hip-shooting comments about trade, taxes and other topics. White House officials say Byrd has approached them privately with a plea that they not try to use "divide and conquer" tactics on Senate Democrats. It is easy to see why Byrd would make such a request, but not why Reagan would honor it.

The potential for divisions among key Senate Democrats is obvious. The new Senate committee chairmen fall into two distinct groups, seven being among the most anti-Reagan Democrats in the chamber and another seven among his most consistent Democratic supporters, according to Congressional Quarterly. The anti-Reagan senators and the committees they head are Patrick J. Leahy Agriculture; William Proxmire Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; Quentin N. Bur-dick (N.D.), Environment and Public Works; Claiborne Pell (R.I.), Foreign Relations; Joseph R.

Biden, Jr. Judiciary; Edward M. Kennedy Labor and Human Resources; and Alan Cranston Veterans. But seven other committee chairmen are among the most pro-Reagan Democrats, backing his stand from 58 to 73 percent of the time in 1986. They are: John C.

Stennis Appropriations; Sam Nunn Armed Services; Lawton Chiles Budget; J. Bennett Johnston Energy and Natural Resources; Lloyd Bentsen Finance; David L. Boren Intelligence; and Ernest F. Holl-ings (S.C.), Commerce, Science and Transportation. The institutional power balance lies with the Southern conservative chairmen; they have the stronger committees.

But if the conservatives have the bigger voice on spending and defense, the liberals have the say on' major areas of domestic policy, and control the Foreign Relations Committee. Byrd, a border-state man of conservative instincts with finely tuned political antennae, will need all his skill to keep the Democratic chairmen from colliding with each other. But those likely collisions give Reagan and the Republicans a chance of salvaging something from their reduced and largely defensive circumstances. Reagan able Democratic By DAVIDS. BRODER Washington Pout Writers Group WASHINGTON The altered political architecture of Washington becomes visible this week with the convening of the 100th Congress.

This year, for the first time in this decade, the Congress that looks down on the While House and the departmental buildings from the height of Capitol Hill has the potential to dominate the city substantively as well as geographically. Ronald Reagan's aides do not like to admit it, but the president is clearly on the defensive for the first time in his administration. The change wil' be attributed by many to the erosion of public-support stemming from the Iran-and-Contras scandal. Obviously that affair has emboldened others to challenge the president's leadership. But the power shift began earlier.

It even predates the November election, which saw the Democrats take over control of the Senate with an eight-Seat gain. The air has been going out of Reagan's balloon ever since he won his empty re-election victory. The themeless campaign he waged in 1984 left him without a policy mandate. In 1986, when Republicans still had the Senate majority to counter Democratic control of the House, Reagan won only 56.5 percent of the congressional roll-calls testing his policies, Congressional Quarterly reports. That was the lowest winning percentage for any president since Jerry Ford faced a Democratic Congress in the final year of his appointive presidency in 1976.

As a powerhouse president in 1981, Reagan had won 82.4 percent of the roll-call tests. His downhill slide might well have made him a loser more often than a winner in 1987, even if Republicans still had a Senate majority. As it is, Reagan's advisers know this will be his toughest year on Capitol Hill. But they see some realistic hope of running a salvage operation that does not depend entirely on a veto strategy such as Dwight D. Eisehnhower and Ford both employed when faced by aggressive Democratic Congresses in the final two years of their terms.

Reagan probably will use the veto more often in the next two years than in the past six, but his legislative lieutenants think he has to be selective in its application and not delude himself into thinking it can be the basis of his whole congressional strategy. Many of his goals are, in fact, defensive: to avoid having Congress tie his hands in arms-control dealings with the Soviets; to protect his defense and foreign-aid programs from further cuts; to keep aid to the Contras from being terminated; to block a tax increase and overtly protectionist trade leg fects of developing that field will be on the unmatched wildlife resources of the Arctic NWR. There is nothing magical about the "Phantom Oil Field Ploy." It is simploy another example of the Reagan administration's cynical natural resource policy a policy that is based on shaping the facts, to fit ideology. We've seen a lot of that sort of thing from the Reagan administra- tion in recent months, with mosti of the attention going to the foreign policy and national defense crowd. But when it comes to flim-flammery and double-talk, nobody can accuse the Interior, Department of not holding up its end.

When mv time mra will I hp' as well prepared to die as was Bill Barton? I doubt it. On Thanksgiving Day, 1975, 49 years old, he died. His future passed to Mike. Mike was its natural inheritor. With their loving presence, Mike and Nelson Jiad blanketed Bill's final days.

His death shook each of them. They knew what it was that they had lost. In a few hours, Mike Sullivan will become our governor. A fearsome job in a fearsome time. Have no fear.

Mike will succeed. Joe Sullivan and Bill Barton will see to it that he does. Forgive me a personal note. I have had two great loves in my life. One was my mother, the other with my wife.

Each was a Sullivan. Being in love with a Sullivan is great! Right, Jane? No easy tasks aTiead for our new, governor. But Mike Sullivan" doesn't shun the difficult. You doubt me? Think back to the campaign. As he continues his climb, no height Mike reaches will surprise his father, Joe Sullivan, or his friend, Bill Barton.

Our future is now in Gov. Mike Sullivan's hands. All of us are his family. He needs our help. Be reassured.

Our new leader has strong very strong hands. And more. He has a razor sharp mind. this feat is widespread in the federal bureaucracy. It extends even into the lower ranks of the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

For years, the policy of those agencies has been to lease federal lands for oil and gas exploration on the basis of minimal analysis of the potential effects of petroleum development on other resources. For almost as long, conservationists have argued that decisions on leasing should be made only after the appropriate federal agencies have been forced to decide whether the area is suitable for full-scale development in the event that major oil or gas reserves are found. The BLM and Forest Service graduate from our law school. His father had hoped Mike might return to Douglas. It wasn't to be.

Bill Barton and Mike Sullivan became close friends. Recall the hat Mike so often wears? It was a gift from Bill. I was fortunate to have Bill Barton as my friend. In 1964, I made a "citizens arrest" on Casper's main street. Not a wise idea.

A day later, my sutures in place, my eye swollen shut, Bill visited me. I met his young friend, Mike Sullivan. Neither lectured me about my folly. Ever since, I have trouble seeing Mike without remembering Bill. Mike and Jane became Bill's second family.

Dinner on Durbin street once or twice a week. Trips together. Relaxed, yet stimulating, friendships. Bill developed cancer of the stomach. He had served in Paris during the War.

Knowing he was dying, he wanted to see Paris one more time. Mike and Bill planned the trip. While in Paris, Bill's health deteriorated. Dr. Nelson Frissell, Bill's physician, was with Nelson scoured Paris for a make-do intravenous setup.

He was able to sustain Bill's life until they could return home. I visited Bill during his final days. He was one of the most remarkable men I have ever known. Our visits about death he on its doorstep were memorable. PERSONALLY I DEPLORE VIOLENCE.

Gov. Sullivan inherited strength to lead Margaret, carrying Dan, and two young sons, Joe and Mike. He was gone for 4 years. He fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He came home.

Manners were important in the Sullivan home. Joe taught his sons to "reverence women." Margaret was the perfect lady to guide an otherwise all-male household. Mike inherited the work ethic from his father. Each loved the law. Lights burned late in his Douglas office.

When wasn't Joe Sullivan the Converse County Attorney? He PHI "Son, I'm proud of you." In simple words, Joe Sullivan speaks. A second voice is heard. "Miss Jane, you certainly are a lovely First Lady." Bill Barton's joy is evident. His closest friend is to become the 29th governor of the state of Wyoming. Neither Joe Sullivan nor Bill Barton will be present in the State Capitol this morning.

Both are dead. Yet without their influence on Mike Sullivan's life, he might be off taking depositions in Dubois today. Yet be not of weak heart, Joe Sullivan and Bill Barton live on in Mike's life. For all the shamrocks in Ireland, they wouldn't miss being in Cheyenne this day. "Dad was a very special person.

He was the most selfless man I have ever known." Dan, Mike's brother, speaks for the family. "He instilled in his sons a love of life." Mike's grandfather, also a Joe Sullivan, practiced law "forever" in Laramie. He was in the state House of Representatives. "Is the key under the rock at 1012 Grand Avenue?" Folks from near and far would gather at the Sullivan home. All were welcome.

Many a late night counsel. Is it possible the 1986 gubernatorial campaign was planned at 1012 Grand Avenue 40 years ago? hen the Second World War broke out, Joe Sullivan joined the Navy. Left behind were his wife, Joseph P. Murphy, M.D. Jff v- fit' was also president of the State Bar.

In 1975, while at a special meeting of the University of Wyoming board of trustees, Joe became ill. Within weeks, he was dead. He was 65. To this day, Joe, Mike, and Dan speak of their father with love. Would that all fathers be so graced by their children.

His Yale law degree didn't blind Casper's Bill Barton to Western quality. He recruited the too 'XXI COdLD POIMDOTER AMD PAR004S, bjt IT WOULD BE WROMG- i.