I was under the impression that a royalty is collected from drilling on the North Slope. Previous ANS drilling has had a 90/10 divsion with Alaska, but the bill for ANWAR drilling mandates 50/50 sharing. Do these royalties never get collected? If not, is the money being retained by the oil companies?
Again, assuming your assertions, that all present/future benefits would be equal, and ignoring my assertions the "current economic needs" and "dependence from foreign dictators" issues... with Alaskans AND the American people AND the majority of their representatives wanting to drill... do you now agree that drilling should begin?
The only way I can see you saying "no" to that point is on the "ethics" argument ("If the majorities wanted slavery, it would still be wrong")... but I don't see what the ethical argument is here, if 99.98% of the land remains untouched for the use of future generations, and the fact that we produce MUCH more cleanly that the Middle East dictatorships. Otherwise, you would simply be against petroleum altogether, and the Industrial Age and the Computer Age have simply passed you by. (I address these arguments to anyone who might be lurking on our conversation, not just you, LfD)
But just to bite on the minor side-point of post #80 I just can't resist! Send help! =^): How should the $$ be divided? America is still a capitalist society, so the drilling rights should go to the highest bidder, the treasury getting the proceeds (and cutting my taxes) and the bidder would keep 100% of the proceeds. Period.
(Finally, ya gotta like the second half of this thread... days long, no disruptors, and some clean communication on both sides... not too many FR threads make it this many days without some black marks! Way to go, us!)