Posted on 11/07/2007 11:19:34 PM PST by Species8472
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Congressional delegation is preparing for another fight over the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.
Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman introduced a bill that would designate the coastal plain of the Arctic refuge as "wilderness."
Backers of the bill say it would permanently protect the refuge from oil development.
The Alaska delegation quickly sent out a statement saying they intend to defeat the bill.
The delegation called the bill a short-sighted proposal and say ANWR is the nation's best chance to increase domestic oil production.
Me, too. But you know....once this rabid fascination for raising the price of gasoline hits the folks who will hurt the most....like my inner city high school students, it may become a millstone around their necks in the voting booth.
You never saw such rage and emotional intensity until you see the light in their eyes as they discuss (with me, in class) politics during one of my American Government classes. Since I'm all about issues and agendas (see my FR page) I encourage honest exchange and examination of all sides. They blame Bush for everything. These kids don't follow politics. Couldn't care less. They are simply mirroring the feeling of parents, clergy and.....their math, science and unfortunately from their social studies teachers. Until they met me.
So they fervently want the Dems to vanquish the 'pubbies and wash their hands in (political) 'pubbie blood. Until they are shown (not told) the voting records of these people they revere on issues like abortion and partial birth abortion (once that procedure is explained) and see that passion give way to questioning. Most all these kids go to church (the real thugs are selling dope outside the perimeter fence) and they're not old enough to be so hypocritical before God. Then the kicker is when the price of oil is explained and how the Dems want to fund their entitlement programs and what that means to them personally.
I can't speak for inner city kids in general, but my kids all seem to hate welfare having seen it's effects first hand and they all want to be corporate bandits to get the heck outta the 'Hood. They want to make money and pay less tax. Yes they're all conservatives deep down inside. But they've been so manipulated over the years that many can't see the forest for the trees.
But watch the rage switch sides when they're shown the potentials for oil exploration and alternative fuels; only to realize the Dems want that $5 a gallon gas to push socialism. There's only one way to really open eyes: Present a valid threat to their wheels.
As long as the Dems control Congress, there will be no drilling.
"We won't be getting any oil for TEN YEARS!" they howled.
So they stopped it. And now it is almost 7 years later.
We could have been 3 years away from a massive influx of new oil. Please remind your fellow citizens that it was the Democrat Party which made sure we would be importing the same amount of oil from Saudi Arabia instead of from Alaska. Ask them if that is something they admire or disdain. Ask them to remember that on Election Day 2008.
Trust us good people of Alaska, we Democratic Politicians know better than you what’s good for you and your state—even though most of us have never been there.
Your friends,
Hillary and Chucky
They didn't dance alone. As long as there are RINOs who follow the RAT agenda we're doomed.
ping.
It is a bread and butter issue....where the GOP could make the DEMs splinter themselves.....Either support their fringe enviro whacko base.....or anger the general public via higher gas prices...
The case is there to be made (easily) by the GOP/WH!
In New Mexico, the Richardson administration is heaping new restrictive and obstructive rules on the oil and gas industry. The most recent one assumes the CO2 is a pollutant and is requiring oil and gas operations (everything from wellheads to field compressors, to natural gas processors) to report emissions. It doesn’t matter that scientific evidence is beginning to emerge that man-made CO2, especially from US industry, is essentially insignificant in causing global warming.
The Sierra Club enviro-wackos want to kill the goose that provides the money that allows Richardson to pay for all his follies like his railroad to nowhere and the new “spaceport”. Meanwhile, funding for roads and highways goes wanting. The 30-day legislative session coming up in January will be interesting to watch as even the conservative Dems are starting to question his dictatorship.
I was going to add exactly the same comment. Several years ago when the Pubbies controlled both houses of Congress, we could have authorized drilling in ANWR if it hadn't been for the RINOs blocking it.
If I were a politician, I’d argue that we have a national emergency, a crisis if you will. And as such we need to drill and explore for oil in our own backyard to make us energy independent, to keep gas prices from hurting the American people. At the same time we need to develop alternative fuels and energy sources that will one day replace oil and natural gas as our primary energy sources. Give us 10 years of drilling an exploring for oil in the United States, and by that time we’ll have the technology and resources available, at affordable prices, to make a transition from fossil burning fuels to cleaner energy. In the short term however, we have a national crisis and we must do what we can to help lower the cost of oil and gas.
Alaska wants the bill defeated. That’s saying something.
Hope this puts an end to the Lieberman is a fellow conservative and a Great American hero. He is a liberal through and through - except for WTO.
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 1002 Area, Petroleum Assessment, 1998, Including Economic Analysis
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-0028-01/
The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (1980) established the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). In section 1002 of that act, Congress deferred a decision regarding future management of the 1.5-million-acre coastal plain (”1002 area”) in recognition of the areas potentially enormous oil and gas resources and its importance as wildlife habitat. A report on the resources (including petroleum) of the 1002 area was submitted in 1987 to Congress by the Department of the Interior (DOI). Since completion of that report, numerous wells have been drilled and oil fields discovered near ANWR, new geologic and geophysical data have become available, seismic processing and interpretation capabilities have improved, and the economics of North Slope oil development have changed significantly.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) commonly is asked to provide the Federal Government with timely scientific information in support of decisions regarding land management, environmental quality, and economic and strategic policy. To do so, the USGS must anticipate issues most likely to be the focus of policymakers in the future. Anticipating the need for scientific information and considering the decade-old perspective of the petroleum resource estimates included in the 1987 Report to Congress, the USGS has reexamined the geology of the ANWR 1002 area and has prepared a new petroleum resource assessment.
So much for states rights. Thanks for nothing, Abraham Lincoln.
Opinions vary wildly on that. Unfortunately, surveying technology is inadequate. There was a survey my college buddy was involved with 12 years ago in Azerbaijan which underestimated the amount of oil by a factor of nearly 20. Qatar's estimate of its natutal gas reserves was wrong by a factor of 40 (they now are confirmed as having the largest reserves on the planet)
You do realize that the Republicans controlled Congress from 1995 to 2007 and they could not approve drilling in ANWR.
The facts are that at no time could ANWR produce enough oil at any one time that would significantly influence the oil market. Furthermore, the ANWR oil will not be for the exclusive use of the U.S. but instead will be sold on the world market.
Bush could simply sign an executive order then congress would need a 2/3 to override
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