Free Republic

NICE audio interview Lars has posted at his website. Worth the listen. Two quotes: "Alaskans want to see Anwar developed" "What we [Alaska] need if for congress to unlock our lands!"

Leadership: When it comes to giving relief at the pump by drilling for more oil, this is truly a "do-nothing" Democratic Congress. President Bush should give 'em hell like Harry Truman did. Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution states that the president "may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses" of Congress. On more than two dozen occasions in our history, presidents have done just that, forcing the Senate and House of Representatives to meet on extraordinary matters of defense or economic peril. Sixty years ago this month, President Truman called such a special session to shame into action what...

There's a reason Republican Sen. John McCain, President Bush and even Republican Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida all abruptly endorsed plans to expand offshore drilling last week - and it's not just $4-a-gallon gasoline. In an election year when Republicans are bracing to lose seats in Congress and major issues from Iraq to the economy appear to favor the Democrats, the GOP is betting that an aggressive push to drill for new domestic energy will be their ticket to success in November."Energy is actually a huge opportunity for Republicans," said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who chairs the Senate Republicans' re-election...

Video of McCain, then Palin. John McCain says he opposes drilling in ANWAR, but supports states' right to drill where they want. He is going to have to contend with future Republican heavyweight, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. She want to drill in her state. What say you Johnny Mac?

Sen. John McCain said this week he would not drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for the same reason he "would not drill in the Grand Canyon ... I believe this area should be kept pristine." Pristine means unspoiled, virginal, in an original state. One wonders how pristine the Grand Canyon can be if it has roughly 5 million visitors every year, rafting, hiking, picnicking and riding mules up one side and down the other. Campfires, RVs and motels that do not conjure the word "virginal" ring around large swaths of it. This isn't to say that the Grand...

TO: John McCain and the RNC, Your latest solicitation for our money has a lot of “I want…” statements in it. Merely saying “I want…” does NOT impress me and won’t get the job done! I would like to hear some “I WILL…” AND MEAN IT ! If you want our money, and our vote, then “WE WANT” some ACTION from the RNC and John McCain! GET YOU HEAD OUT AND PAY ATTENTION…. WE ARE SERIOUS AMERICAN CITIZENS THAT VOTE! We WANT an absolute, unequivocal, commitment that we WILL DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, AND PAY LESS! The stupidity of sitting...

Senate rejects ANWR drilling Erika Bolstad Modified: May 13th, 2008 03:27 PM WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate rejected a Republican energy plan that promised to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, an option that was part of an overall package to increase domestic energy development.

WASHINGTON, DC, May 9 -- US Senate Democrats presented their legislative response to record high oil prices on May 7, introducing their energy bill 6 days after Republicans introduced theirs. The primary difference between the two measures was apparent in their titles. Republicans called their bill the American Energy Production Act. Democrats named theirs the Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008 and incorporated provisions similar to several in HR 5351, which the House passed by 236 to 182 votes on Feb. 27 largely along party lines. Those provisions include moving $17 billion in financial incentives from major oil companies to alternative...

JOHN MCCAIN A Potent Issue, With Less Contrast Than Would Be Ideal Gas prices get even higher, ensuring that oil and energy will be dominant issues in the campaign this summer. GatewayPundit has some great maps showing areas that are off-limits to offshore drilling. He writes, "Which party blocked drilling in ANWR?— Democrat", which is accurate, but we ought to note that (sigh) McCain opposes drilling in ANWR as well. McCain also describes himself as a "federalist" on offshore drilling (even though one poll suggested 75 percent of Alaskans support ANWR drilling) and a "let the locals decide" policy sounds...

I am hoping someone here can help me with this question abnout oil from Alaska. This past weekend we had a visit from my wifes very Liberal Grandparents. The of course rode me on the evil Republicans causing mass suffering worldwide. When the topic got to the price of gasoline, I quickly brought up that Democrat's and tree huggers should support us drilling in Anwar. I was quickly told to learn my history, because the oil drilled in Alaska goes to Japan because Reagan was a crook blah blah blah... So whats the real story about oil from Alaska? A...

Polar Bears Potential ESA Listing Called ‘Regulatory Monster’ For the second time in the past three months, the EPW Committee conducted a hearing on the decision to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The potential listing of the polar bear under ESA is being promoted by many activists as a way to save the bear. Today’s hearing also focused on the Department of the Interior’s failure to meet its court-ordered and statutory deadlines for making a listing decision and the subsequent lawsuit brought by environmental groups. FACT: Worldwide polar bear population numbers are at or...

Oil prices will stay at current high levels for the rest of this year due to speculation and geopolitical tensions, Algerian state media on Monday reported OPEC President Chakib Khelil as saying. Prices could retreat in 2009 with a recovery of the U.S. dollar in foreign exchange markets following the election of a new U.S. president, and as fundamentals reassert themselves as major market forces, he was reported as saying by government newspaper El Moudjahid and state news agency APS. "Just like the current surge in oil markets, the (world economic) crisis, will last until the end of the year,"...

Should we use ethanol for fuel? Certainly. Should we use corn to make that ethanol? Certainly not. Sure, we want to get over our need for foreign oil. Sure, we want to find a renewable fuel for our vehicles. Sure, ethanol could work just fine. But don’t make it from corn. Here’s what I’m talking about. The president and a bunch of powerful people in Congress have been working over recent years to hold up corn-based ethanol as the answer to our future energy-supply needs. When he talks about it, the president says corn-based ethanol is our only hope of...

Drilling in Anwar was voted down by McCain.

Oil prices prompt expanded drilling talk Crude oil prices hitting $100 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday show the need for expanding domestic production, the White House said. Oil prices topped $100 a barrel during intra-day trading before closing at $99.62 a barrel. We know that higher energy prices have a perverse impact on families' budgets, especially small businesses, as well, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said during a news briefing. President George W. Bush will push Congress to expand domestic production of oil in environmentally sensitive ways in areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge...

An article in the Wall Street Journal last week points out what happens when public officials depend upon the continued bad behavior of Americans to fund their projects. Under the headline: "Fuel-Efficient Cars Dent States' Road Budgets," reporter Robert Guy Matthews writes that drivers, answering the call to conserve energy, are driving cars which use less gas. Less gas used means less gas purchased. Less gas purchased means fewer tax dollars collected. Way fewer. According to Matthews: The Federal Highway Administration estimates that by 2009 the tax receipts that make up most of the federal highway trust fund will be...

WASHINGTON (AP) – Opponents of oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge are going on the offense after playing defense for a quarter of a century. They want the new Democratic Congress to make an oft-challenged drilling ban permanent. Legislation introduced in the House on Friday would make the oil-rich 1.2 million-acre coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a permanently protected wilderness, and end repeated efforts to open the area east of the Prudhoe oil field to energy companies. “The consensus is that there should not be drilling in the refuge, so the logical next step is to...

WASHINGTON -- Along with automakers, the Bush administration wants to end debate over whether ethanol made from corn yields more energy than does the fuel used to produce it. The Energy Department's verdict: It does. A new department brochure says that 740,000 British thermal units of fossil energy are consumed to make and deliver ethanol that contains 1 million Btu of energy. The latest version of the brochure, issued last month, is part of a broad department defense of ethanol. . . . Critic unbowed "Every argument they make is bogus," says Tad Patzek, one of the leading critics of...

Kayak.com has started running an ad that is amazingly poor in honesty and is activism wrapped up in emotionalist lies. The add at THIS link shows how you should visit pristine Alaska and see it before BIG OIL does. The scene is cartoonish, showing animals and such all of a sudden being covered in oil along with the landscape. I sent them feedback on-line and called as well. Below are contact numbers if you care, but this is disgusting leftist activism at its worst. Kayak.com 27 Ann Street, Suite 300 Norwalk, CT 06854 Tel (203) 899-3100 Fax (203) 899-3125 Kayak.com...

The chairman of the House Resources Committee, Rep. Richard Pombo, has filed another bill to accomplish what so many prior bills have failed to do: open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Recent strategies to get an ANWR bill through a reluctant Senate have involved mixed marriages -- ANWR and the budget or ANWR and the defense bill. Pombo's latest proposal, on the other hand, is a stand-alone bill dealing only with ANWR. That leaves it wide open to filibuster in the Senate. "There's always the chance that Sen. (Ted) Stevens and other like-minded senators could get the...

Probing For Oil By Jenni Vinson Trejo April 28, 2006 Since I broke my right ankle in November in an auto accident, I haven’t been able to drive. I’ve been playing Miss Daisy and having my family chauffer me around. But, this week, my daughters had a crisis in Kingsville and I needed to handle it in person, so I broke down and drove for the first time. It was painful. I did feel the pain in my ankle but having to fill up the Blazer and watching the numbers on the pump spin wildly was even more painful. This...

Global Warming is not Scientific Is Global warming a scientific theory or a belief? http://xtronics.com/reference/globalwarming.htm There are many claiming to be "client scientists", yet (for some strange reason) they don't realize that statistics is not science. Science requires an experimental control. Statistics often provides a scientist a good idea for a hypothesis, but correlations do not prove cause and effect. Furthermore, a computer models are not an experiments in that they again can not discriminate theories into true and false. (They may give one an idea where to poke around, but to claim they "prove" anything is pure fiction...

Democrats may claim victim status for unintended consequences, but at the end of the day, their policies have ultimately produced our current problems with the Axis-of-Evil and their nukes. One only need go back to the Carter administration to reveal the ugly facts. Between World War II and 1979, Iran was the model of progressive Middle Eastern modernity and was undeniably our strongest ally within the Muslim world. However, after Carter’s election, he decided the Shah didn’t measure up to human-rights standards. A leftist mainstream media campaign ran stories of Iranian government-sponsored torture while willfully neglecting to report the Soviet...

A number of years ago I bought a four wheel drive SUV. It was a lot of fun to drive, and it would go through snow up to the bumper. It was also fun to drive in the sand along the shore, and because I liked to surf fish, I accidentally discovered the essence of liberalism, or progressivism. Driving in deep sand along a sea shore can get you into a bad situation pretty quickly as I was to discover when my SUV began to show signs of completely bogging down. It was then when I realized what liberals do...

The right-wing takeover of this sensible country has been stopped. With this pleasant thought, we enter 2006. In one golden week, three things happened that bore a common thread. In each case, mainstream positions won out over the bluster of blowhards. People of principle stared down charges that they were unpatriotic, loved Osama or hated religion. The results were gratifying -- not only to liberals, but to moderates and a good number of self-described conservatives, who have distanced themselves from their leaders' excesses. For starters, the Senate said "no" to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. It...

LAGOS, Dec. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Royal Dutch Shell has been forced to halt oil exports in Nigeria following a pipeline fire that is still blazing in the country's oil-producing Niger Delta region, a company spokesman said on Thursday. "We have declared a force majeure. That means we could not load crude oil from the Bonny Terminal until we restart operation again," a Shell spokesman told Xinhua by telephone. "Today, we will try to fight the fire and commence repairs of the pipeline to see what production we can restore," he said. Shell had closed two oilfields and a flow station...

WASHINGTON -- The Incredible Hulk appeared Tuesday on the Senate floor, adorning the necktie of Sen. Ted Stevens -- a familiar sign that the veteran from Alaska is pumped for the fight to open part of an arctic wildlife refuge to oil drilling. But to hear his colleagues tell it, Stevens is more like the Grinch who would steal Christmas -- and New Year's, if need be -- to collect on his end of a vote-swapping deal he struck with two Democrats 25 years ago. "A promise made is a debt unpaid," Stevens, 82, is fond of repeating. "This is...

WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Both sides in a U.S. Senate debate over opening an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling expected a close vote on Wednesday over the latest attempt by Senate Republicans to pass the measure, this time by adding it to a big military-spending bill. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, known as ANWR, which sprawls along Alaska's northern coast and may hold 10 billion barrels of oil, has been the focus of bitter wrangling in Congress for more than two decades. Most Senate Democrats and some moderate Republicans say the frigid wilderness and its assortment of wildlife,...

WASHINGTON - House leaders late Wednesday abandoned an attempt to push through a hotly contested plan to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling, fearing it would jeopardize approval of a sweeping budget bill Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT They also dropped from the budget document plans to allow states to authorize oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts — regions currently under a drilling moratorium. The actions were a stunning setback for those who have tried for years to open a coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, to oil development, and a victory for...

President George W. Bush wants to kill the last wildlife sanctuary in the United States. He is more than happy to sink his claws into it, tear it apart and plunder it for his own uses. Environment? What environment? If it’s got oil, it’s ours. Who cares about some stupid animals? According to a Nov. 4 article on CNN.com, the Senate on Thursday approved a measure that would compel the Department of the Interior “to begin selling oil leases for the coastal plain of the Alaska refuge within two years.” Yes, you heard correctly. The refuge. The place where we...

If I read this right, Voino voted right ("nay" on the amendment offered by the Dems) but that idiot DeWhine still hasn't learned his lesson, and voted "Yay." Time for more flames to this jerk's office.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 - Maps matter. They chronicle the struggles of empires and zoning boards. They chart political compromise. So it was natural for Republican Congressional aides, doing due diligence for what may be the last battle in the fight over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to ask for the legally binding 1978 map of the refuge and its coastal plain. It was gone. No map, no copies, no digitized version.

Now that the dust is starting to settle and the smoke starting to clear and all those in the effected area who want help are getting it after Katrina, there is something very important that needs to be tackled for the future of the country’s stability. And it needs to be dealt with now. Should have years ago but a Democrat minority killed it. The tree huggers have put us in this position that has us all paying almost $3.00 or more for regular unleaded. And it’s no one’s fault BUT theirs. I want clean air and water too. And...

As one who suffered through the devastation of Hurricane Charley, I know that, as bad as our situation was, the people on the Gulf Coast have suffered much more due to the flooding that followed Katrina. Every effort ought to be made to alieve their suffering and stabilize their situation as quickly as possible. The American Red Cross and the National Guard saved us in Florida by bringing us ice, bottled water and hot meals every day. Even so, it is over a year later, and very little rebuilding has been done in the areas of Florida that were hardest...

WASHINGTON - Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman said Wednesday the Bush administration will release oil from petroleum reserves to help refiners affected by Hurricane Katrina. An announcement was expected later in the day. The move is designed to give refineries in the Gulf Coast area a temporary supply of crude oil to take the place of interrupted shipments from tankers or offshore oil platforms affected by the storm.

Soaring gasoline prices are getting a rise out of many U.S. motorists, but by and large they're not getting in the way of summer vacations, commuting habits or SUV sales. What if gasoline prices, which have risen to $2.55 a gallon, keep climbing? Diana Amaro, of Denver, said that if gas reached $3 a gallon, she'd consider taking the bus. Ray Sykora, of Yuba City, Calif., said pump prices would have to exceed $4 a gallon before he hopped on public transportation. No matter how much motorists shake their heads in disgust at record pump prices, fuel consumption isn't expected...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Conspicuous by its absence in the sweeping energy bill that President Bush has championed and will sign Monday is his top energy priority: opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling. But the fight over the future of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will flare anew in Congress next month with drilling advocates saying they have their best chance in more than two decades of making it happen. Tapping what is believed to be at least 10 billion barrels of oil within the refuge's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain has been the centerpiece of Bush's energy agenda dating...

...Higher oil prices hit the economy much like a tax increase.... It's a testament to the effectiveness of the 2003 Bush tax cuts that the economy continues to grow briskly despite this anchor of high fuel costs. So what can be done about it? In the long run, the government can lift restrictions on domestic production of oil and natural gas in Alaska and offshore. The Federal Reserve can also play its part by tightening what has been the most accommodative monetary policy since the 1970s.... And speaking of the 1970s, the most important thing Congress can do is not...

“But I want you to know that I won't give up in our fight to stop the drilling. And neither should you. I'm going to use every legislative tool at my disposal to reverse this vote and prevent this terrible policy from going into effect. But we can do more -- today.” “I'm planning to organize a consumer boycott of any oil company that decides to drill in this pristine Alaskan wilderness area. If, through our pocketbooks, we can convince these companies to do the right thing, we can still save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the destruction that...

The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, Alaska Coalition, Defenders of Wildlife, and Natural Resources Defense Council still oppose ANWR development -- even as they promote their favorite alternative to Arctic oil: wind energy. The U.S. Senate budget bill would finally open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling. Environmentalists are shocked and outraged. "This battle is far from over," they vowed. Indeed, the 51-49 margin underscores the ideological passion of drilling opponents, their party-line determination to block Bush Administration initiatives, the misinformation that still surrounds this issue, and a monumental double standard for environmental protection. Many votes against drilling came...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

...President Bush has won a clear mandate for his big second-term agenda, including the giants of Social Security reform and tax overhaul. Yet his ability to do anything still rests with the Senate.... Republicans [picked] up Democratic seats in both Carolinas and Georgia, as well as Louisiana and Florida. They weathered storms in Kentucky and Oklahoma, and even held Alaska. But the big daddy came with the overthrow of Mr. Daschle. That ouster... was as much a repudiation of obstructionism as it was Mr. Daschle's own record. [C]onsider not just the Republicans' numerical gains, but their ideological ones. With the...

John Kerry gave a fire-breathing speech at Temple University in Philadelphia on Friday. In it he announced what will be his themes for the balance of the campaign, subject of course to 180-degree changes at any time. There was one problem with the speech. It was largely “fact-free,” as Dave Barry is wont to say. Here are the claims, and the relevant facts to each claim: “The invasion of Iraq was a profound diversion from the battle against our greatest enemy -- Al Qaeda -- ...” Kerry may not have noticed, but your average college student ought to know that...

No one yet has the full story on the infamous June 29 Northwest Airlines Flight #327 from Detroit to Los Angeles, on which thirteen Syrian musicians acted so suspiciously that passenger and WomensWallStreet.com writer Annie Jacobsen feared she was about to be killed by terrorists. The identity of the band remained unknown for a while until I identified them as the backup band for Canaanite crooner Nour Mehana, whom I dubbed the "Syrian Wayne Newton." Regardless of the behavior of Nour Mehana's band, Ms. Jacobsen's story has focused international attention on the very serious issue of terrorists sizing up our...

New Tussle Over Alaskan Oil ANCHORAGE, June 10, 2004 A herd of caribou graze inside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge  (Photo: AP) "It's an incredible rollback that the agency [BLM] is not acknowledging to the public."Eleanor Huffines, The Wilderness Society (AP) The federal government wants 387,000 more acres available for oil and gas drilling in Alaska, a proposal criticized by environmentalists. The move announced Wednesday is part of a proposed Bureau of Land Management amendment to a 1998 development plan for the northeastern region of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Environmentalists said the plan would endanger lands rich in sensitive wetlands and...

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary May 22, 2004 President's Radio Address      Audio THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week brought further evidence that across America, more citizens are finding jobs. The Department of Labor reported state-by-state job results, and these figures show that America's jobs engine is running strong. Nationally, we gained 288,000 new jobs in April, and the nation has added more than 1.1 million new jobs since last August. The unemployment rate has fallen steadily, and now stands at 5.6 percent, down from 6.3 percent last June, and lower than the average unemployment rate of...

John Kerry has been ranting and raving about Saudi Prince Bandar’s clout with the Bush administration, complaining of an alleged "secret" deal between the U.S. and the Saudis that would keep oil prices low before the 2004 election. "If it is true that gas supplies and prices in America are tied to the American election, tied to a secret White House deal, that is outrageous and unacceptable to the American people,'' Kerry said. Some secret! Bandar publicly announced the deal on the front steps of the White House. It was to the Saudis advantage to keep prices low before presidential...

Everyone on the panel was laughing their ass off, Chris asks what is he going to put in the pipeline; Water. Hoffa said no he said he will drill for oil, Kerry will put me on his trade panel and will drill for oil everywhere in the U.S. If anyone can get video on this it would be helpful

Unlike the previous Administration, which had an indisputable genius for short term, small scale political tactics, Dubya and his government have a tendency to think big. If they didn't, they'd probably be called before the Un-Texan Activities Committee and forced to explain why they contented themselves with "iddy biddy stuff, like that fella from Arkansas." Bush and his team came into office with ambitious ideas about how to reshape American education, reform Social Security and cut taxes more drastically than anyone had since Ronald Reagan. These goals served them fairly well. They got most of what they wanted in the...

<p>We'll say this for the energy bill that is about to come to a final vote in Congress: It's certainly comprehensive. It may not have all that much to do with energy any more, but it does give something to every last elected Representative.</p>