ANWR-Round 87
The US Senate, in a tight 51-49 defeat, did not pass an amendment that would have removed a provision for the start of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. While DailyKos is a bit more optimistic in offering further avenues to pursue, I am not.
There are enough arguments against the proposal:
1) It's a WILDLIFE REFUGE
2) It will do harm to the surrounding environment. GUARANTEED.
3) The oil to be extracted won't be available for 10 years, which doesn't solve current price issues (even though we pay at least half as much as Europeans...)
4) Once that reserve is used up, the US are back to square one in terms of energy security.
5) The US could easily provide incentives to reduce energy use by the amount of oil it expects to extract
6) It's a WILDLIFE REFUGE!
It's one of the last remaining near-pristine arctic environments left on the North American continent, if not the world, and now they're one step closer to exploratory drilling and extraction. Brilliant, fellas. They really won't learn until a major accident happens on the lands and then it'll be too late.
*Clap......Clap......Clap*
3 comments:
What makes you think that a major accident will teach them a lesson?
How many oil spills have there been in the last 20 years? What lesson has been taken from that?
Calvin, I am so SO thrilled that one of your many blogs is finally on something I feel I can actually intelligently comment on!
Yeah, so without futher reitoriating the stupidity of what's already being said, and without excessive seething rage, I'm going to ask a question:
Why hasn't there been any significant push by american and canadian environmentalists to have the zone designated under the American National Park System? Sure, wildlife reserve was great, but groups must have known that is wasn't going to offer the long term protection the area needed. Makes you wonder which region is next......and definitly brings to question the legitimacy of the term "wildlife refuge".
That's my pessimistic rant du jour.
-Andria
Andria,
I think there's probably been a push but environmentalists aren't the popular type in Alaska and I doubt they're getting much pull in DC. If there wasn't the potential for oil underneath, this would've been a National Park long ago. As "crude" as this may sound, the US government want to keep the option open of drilling open to them or wait for an opportunity such as now to push such legislation through as opposed to working on energy conservation. Yay Politicking!
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