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In the Blink of an Eye, a Hunt for Oil Threatens Pristine Alaska
New York Times ^ | December 3, 2018 | Henry Fountain and Steve Eder

Posted on 12/03/2018 1:40:01 PM PST by reaganaut1

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — It is the last great stretch of nothingness in the United States, a vast landscape of mosses, sedges and shrubs that is home to migrating caribou and the winter dens of polar bears.

Aside from a Native village at its northern tip, civilization has not dented its 19 million acres, an area the size of South Carolina. There are no roads and no visitors beyond the occasional hunter and backpacker.

But the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — a federally protected place of austere beauty that during a recent flyover was painted white by heavy snowfall — is on the cusp of major change.

The biggest untapped onshore trove of oil in North America is believed to lie beneath the refuge’s coastal plain along the Beaufort Sea. For more than a generation, opposition to drilling has left the refuge largely unscathed, but now the Trump administration, working with Republicans in Congress and an influential and wealthy Alaska Native corporation, is clearing the way for oil exploration along the coast.

Decades of protections are unwinding with extraordinary speed as Republicans move to lock in drilling opportunities before the 2020 presidential election, according to interviews with over three dozen people and a review of internal government deliberations and federal documents.

To that end, the Trump administration is on pace to finish an environmental impact assessment in half the usual time. An even shorter evaluation of the consequences of seismic testing is nearing completion. Within months, trucks weighing up to 90,000 pounds could be conducting the tests across the tundra as they try to pinpoint oil reserves.

While actual oil production would be a decade or more away, the turnaround represents a prized breakthrough in the Trump administration’s campaign to exploit fossil fuels and erase restrictive policies protecting the environment

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; US: Alaska
KEYWORDS: anwr; fakenews; fakescience; interior; oil
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We shouldn't drill where people live, and we shouldn't drill where they don't. Windmills will supply all the power we need. /s
1 posted on 12/03/2018 1:40:01 PM PST by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

How would they know with their head so firmly implanted?


2 posted on 12/03/2018 1:40:48 PM PST by DoughtyOne (01/26/18 DJIA 30 stocks $26,616.71 48.794% > open 11/07/16 $215.71 frm 50% increase in 1.2183 yrs)
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To: reaganaut1

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!

We cant destroy the ‘PRISTINE’ Alaska!!!

Not even 0.001% of it (for $billions in natural resources)

BECAUSE IT LOOKS SO PRETTY


3 posted on 12/03/2018 1:41:51 PM PST by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing Obamacare is worse than Obamacare itself.)
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To: reaganaut1

You scared me there for a minute :)

Cue the alarms and hair pulling and gnashing of teeth.

Alaska is forever ruined.

Just like Texas it will be a wasteland /s

I’m sure PLENTY of protective laws are put in place already.


4 posted on 12/03/2018 1:45:59 PM PST by dp0622 (The Left should know if.. Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR!)
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To: reaganaut1; hoosiermama; Salvation; Right_in_Virginia; reformedliberal; Jane Long; HopeandGlory; ...

Alaska Ping.

5 posted on 12/03/2018 1:46:35 PM PST by KC_Lion (If you want on First Lady Melania's, Ivanka Trump's or Sarah Palin's Ping Lists, just let me know.)
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To: reaganaut1

Drill, baby, drill!


6 posted on 12/03/2018 1:46:46 PM PST by kaehurowing
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To: reaganaut1

In the Blink of the NYTimes Eye, a Hunt for Oil Threatens Pristine Alaska

Fixed it.


7 posted on 12/03/2018 1:46:53 PM PST by jazusamo (Have You Donated to Keep Free Republic Up and Running?)
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To: reaganaut1

Question, and this is a serious question, not just joking around:

How much environmental damage was done by the Alaska pipeline, the one built in the late ‘60s into the ‘70s? As I recall many environment safeguards were built into the construction and operations of that pipeline.

Wouldn’t the same environmental protection be part of any new oil drilling in Alaska?

How can they say Alaska faces all this environment danger, when the pipeline was designed to minimize impacts to the environment?


8 posted on 12/03/2018 1:47:32 PM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: reaganaut1

The old gray whore is a perpetual pain in the ass. She should be more interested in the failings at home, in her own back yard.


9 posted on 12/03/2018 1:47:59 PM PST by bert (mthem (KE. N.P. N.C. +12) Invade Honduras. Provide a military government)
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To: reaganaut1

ANWR in the summer is beautiful, if you like mosquitoes and no-see-ums in huge numbers.


10 posted on 12/03/2018 1:48:04 PM PST by dainbramaged (If you want a friend, rescue a pit bull.)
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To: reaganaut1

Anyone shocked to read this crap? If so, go stand in the corner with a Dunce Cap on.

Wait for the stories of the great benefits of the virgin tundra.


11 posted on 12/03/2018 1:48:41 PM PST by arrogantsob (See "Chaos and Mayhem" at Amazon.com)
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To: reaganaut1

I think the only word these extremists know is the word “pristine.”


12 posted on 12/03/2018 1:50:52 PM PST by reasonisfaith (What are the implications if the Resurrection of Christ is a true event in history?)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
"How much environmental damage was done by the Alaska pipeline"

Like none. 800 miles of this:


13 posted on 12/03/2018 1:51:41 PM PST by BeauBo
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To: reaganaut1

What about the Penguins....


14 posted on 12/03/2018 1:51:51 PM PST by seawolf101 (Member LES DEPLORABLES)
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To: DoughtyOne
"World Coming to End Tomorrow, Women and Minorities Hardest Hit."
15 posted on 12/03/2018 1:52:03 PM PST by gigster (Cogito, Ergo, Ronaldus Magnus Conservatus)
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To: reaganaut1

NY Times. Leftist elite turds. Shut up! Alaskans by and large want JOBS! Sure, the natives themselves are split about it, but those native tribes that like jobs, are extremely well off compared to the regressive tribes.


16 posted on 12/03/2018 1:52:57 PM PST by vpintheak (Freedom is not equality; and equality is not freedom!)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

The biggest concern voiced by the Enviro-Nazis was over restricting the breeding grounds of the Caribou.

Wrong as usual, the Caribou are multiplying like never before since the pipelines provide warmth and cover.

Next article should be “Caribou population explosion endangers ....”


17 posted on 12/03/2018 1:53:32 PM PST by arrogantsob (See "Chaos and Mayhem" at Amazon.com)
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To: dainbramaged

OMG! Thirty six people were interviewed! OMG!

Trucks weighing 90,000 pounds, kind of like the
18 wheeler’s you see on the roads every day! OMG!

OMG! 19,000,000 acres and a couple of thousand might
be constructed on! Oh NOE!!!

Drill Baby Drill!


18 posted on 12/03/2018 1:54:37 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: seawolf101

Aren’t Penguins denizens of the South Pole?


19 posted on 12/03/2018 1:54:50 PM PST by arrogantsob (See "Chaos and Mayhem" at Amazon.com)
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To: arrogantsob

Warmth and cover? More reason to have sex?


20 posted on 12/03/2018 1:56:09 PM PST by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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