Worship the Environment -- ANWR as Cathedral

Econopundit has a great post on ANWR drilling from a cost-benefit analysis. He quotes Robert Nelson:

The truly distinctive feature of ANWR is that by leaving it untouched, so much valuable oil would potentially be sacrificed. Protecting the area offers a rare opportunity to make a powerful religious statement. An analysis of the benefits and costs of ANWR oil development thus becomes in major part an assessment of a trade-off between two alternative views of the oil: (1) as fuel for a modern economy, and (2) as a symbol signifying the willingness of society to commit vast resources to preserve a multibillion-dollar cathedral, a religious edifice requiring such large sacrifice that it would stand as one of the greatest {certainly most expensive) testimonies ever made to the glory of the faith.