The Left Wing

Ah, the ever-elusive boundary between art and life. Who knows where it lies, but by all indications, somewhere right down the middle of the NBC drama "The West Wing." Here's the proof: This week, New Mexico's Department of Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources felt the need to issue a press release explaining that Wednesday's episode of the hit show was fictional. In the show, a truck carrying uranium fuel rods crashes in a remote Idaho tunnel. Not to worry, New Mexico assured the public in its release, the state does not transport radioactive waste via tunnels. (Nor, it turns out, does Idaho.) Meanwhile, the previous week's episode, in which characters trashed the idea of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, provoked a rebuke from Republican members of the Alaska Legislature. The lawmakers took issue with assertions that drilling was opposed by Alaska Natives, would destroy caribou herds, and would yield only six months' worth of oil; they likened the show to "millions of dollars of free advertising for the anti-ANWR effort."