ENVIRONMENT -- The Sierra Club is making some good points, backed by science and history, regarding the current trended toward allowing oil drilling into waters that would impact the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

I've been there to see it first hand, and have followed the campaign to drill in the refuge and remote associated waters. A Deepwater Horizon-type oil spill in the arctic would cause unspeakable harm to the fragile ecosystems.

The Obama administration inched a little closer to disaster last month when it issued almost-but-not-quite final approval to Royal Dutch Shell to drill in the Chukchi Sea this summer, the club says.

"Letting Shell into the Arctic makes no sense," says Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune. "It's a case of taking huge risks to get something we don't need.... When this or any other administration flirts with selling more oil leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, we'll be there, in the courts and in the streets."