Dear editor,

The Bush administration is opening the back door to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by letting Shell Oil begin drilling off the coastline this summer. This leaves the entire area vulnerable to a massive oil spill, which is inevitable.

With only one oil spill, there will be a permanent toxic waste site that can never be cleaned up -- because the oil industry has no proven methods for cleaning up oil spills in icy waters.

The irony is that the Bush administration has already predicted that at least one oil spill is "likely to occur," and they are also aware that a toxic oil spill would spread into migratory routes, which would endanger bowhead whales, polar bear birthing grounds and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds. How can this administration be so completely insensitive to anything but profit? It astounds me.

If you have any interest at all in this issue, go to the Natural Resources Defense Council Web site (www.savebiogems.org/arctic/) and find ways that you can help to prevent this drilling from taking place.

Davina Rubin

Napa