Caribou drink oil.
Shhhh, it's really water.
Posted on 03/15/2006 1:30:16 PM PST by Pukin Dog
Under the radar screen, the Senate has marked up the 07 budget to include ANRW drilling. There is a vote tonight in the Senate starting around 5pm eastern time on a measure by Maria Cantwell to remove ANRW from the budget. This time it should pass in the Senate before moving on to the House.
All you folks who thought the matter was dead were not paying attention. ANWR is alive and well, and starting tonight, we are one step closer to soaking those Caribou in crude oil. (that is a joke for the humorless among us)
Drill, baby. DRILL!!
Is Ted Stevens wearing his "Incredible Hulk" tie on the Senate floor today? He was NOT a happy camper last time the Dems defeated this..
I pray this gets done, but I have no faith in Frist's leadership or some of the Republicans in the Senate to get enough support for this to pass. And as we know the Democratic obstructionists are all in lock-step right now to oppose EVERYTHING, so that makes this even more difficult.
ANWR tactic revisited
http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~3263982,00.html
By SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington Bureau
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Inc.
WASHINGTON--A New Hampshire senator has put oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge back on the same legislative track that led to a spectacular derailment last year.
Sen. Judd Gregg, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, unveiled his proposed budget resolution for the next several federal fiscal years at a meeting Wednesday afternoon.
The proposed resolution counts on a total of $3 billion from ANWR oil revenues in fiscal years 2007 through 2011.
The Budget Committee will consider amendments at a second meeting today. Gregg said he plans to complete the work before the meeting is over.
The budget resolution sets the amount of money Congress plans to spend and raise in broad categories. As part of that, the resolution sometimes directs other committees with jurisdiction to propose bills that make changes in law necessary to meet the budgetary goals, a process known as "reconciliation."
Reconciliation bills are exempt from filibusters in the Senate, so last year Republican backers of ANWR drilling used the process to try to advance the cause. Filibuster threats, which require 60 votes to shut down, have stopped ANWR language for several years in the closely divided Senate.
The reconciliation bill passed the Senate last year but crashed in the House of Representatives when a dissident group of Republicans refused to vote for it because of the ANWR language.
That prompted Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to add the language to a defense spending bill he was in charge of writing, but the Senate voted to remove it.
Today's meeting on the budget resolution will represent the first round in this year's fight. Gregg's language would allow ANWR revenue to boost spending in several federal accounts used for land and water conservation work and purchases.
Environmental groups objected after seeing Gregg's proposal.
"Last year, the drilling boosters tried every dirty trick and every back-door maneuver in the book, but they were stopped by the American people and bipartisan leadership in Congress at every turn," said Bill Meadows, president of The Wilderness Society, in a news release. "With this blatant abuse of power, Sen. Stevens and his allies are throwing aside every pretense of good government."
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has said repeatedly that there is nothing tricky about the reconciliation process. It provides a way for each house of Congress to have a simple majority vote on the question, he maintains.
Stevens has said he plans to pursue ANWR legislation again this year.
"Sen. Stevens continues to advocate for the promise that was made to Alaskans by Congress 25 years ago," spokeswoman Courtney Boone said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which will actually write the ANWR language to conform to the budget resolution.
Spokesman Kevin Sweeney said Gregg's action was a good start.
"We're encouraged, obviously, that he included it in the budget resolution but recognize that this is the first step in a lengthy process," Sweeney said. "We expect to work hard on this issue for the rest of the session."
Earth First! We'll strip mine the other planets later. ;^)
What the hell does the Fed's spending budget have to do with private enterprise drilling, pumping refining and transportation to market have to do with ANWR?
I thought we were a free market country. Maybe I'm just too old fashioned and stooopid to understand why Uncle has to have his hand in my pants all the time.
Caribou drink oil.
Shhhh, it's really water.
Ya. Ever since my comment, all I got in my mind is the tune, and dancing to it at bars. ha ha.
Which makes it particularly disgusting when they're featured on the local news demanding more federal aid for Mainers' heating bills.
Did you see Bob Novak's column and what Coburn did regarding heating and your senators?
I hope they have medics on hand for Ted Stevens if it does not pass.
It doesn't. It has nothing to do with spending, but rather with filibustering.
The federal budget is exempt from Senate filibuster rules, you see, so ANWR drilling provisions have to go into that federal budget to avoid being blocked by Senate Dems.
LOL...I felt so bad for him the last time his fellow Senators screwed him over.
The Senate's conduct has been generally reprehensible over the last few years. But this one issue alone gets my blood to boil: ANWR is a wasteland, even the beloved and dear caribou don't give a damn if we drill there. But these holier-than-thou Senators, beholden to cock-eyed environmentalists, want to protect ANWR. At the same time they bitch and moan about energy costs! And restrict off-shore exploration. And restrict building new refineries and nuclear power plants. Madness!!!!
SAVE THE WELLS!
Yes, I've been clear on this ever since Jonah Goldberg's excellent article several years ago. And the pic you posted is a perfect example of the flat, featureless, ugly, minus-60-degrees-in-winter, pitch-black-4-months-out-of-12 terrain where the drilling will take place, devoid of life except for (mostly rabid) foxes, huge biting flies, and thousands of happy, muliplying caribou.
In addition, the oil companies are so extremely protective of the environment that if you pour a cup of cold coffee on the ground, you're gone on the next plane, no appeal or second chance. If you shoot a rabid fox, ditto. The drill area is the size of a small parking lot, and the entire operation has considerably less impact on the environment than a crowd of tree-huggers walking all over the forest every weekend.
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