I sure notice a lot of missing information, like the following. First the history:
Under ANILCA, much of the Refuge was designated as wilderness area, but NOT the coastal plain of ANWR. Rather, the Act set the coastal plain area aside for future consideration of the development of its vast oil resources. Current legislation calls for responsible development on no more than 2000 acres of the 1.5 million acre coastal plain. That's 0.01% of ANWR's total acreage of 19.6 million. The remaining 99.9% would remain off limits to development.
Plus (I wish I'd written this myself):
http://www.perspectives.com/forums/forum4/32472.html
Quote:
- Less than 2000 of the estimated 19 MILLION acres will be affected. 17.5 Million will remain closed to any kind of development.
- Revenues to the federal treasury for the first 5 years are estimated at 4.2 Billion Dollars.
- Economic impact between 1977 and 2004 of the North Shore oil field added over 50 Billion to the nations economy.
- The coastal plain of ANWR is the nations best chance for a major discovery.
- North Slope production has declined from 2 Million Barrels a day to 943,000 per day.
- More than 75% of Alaskans favor exploration and production.
- New job creation is estimated at between 250,000 to 735,000 jobs.
- ANWR production estimated at between 1 Million to 2 Million barrels a day.
- Saudi Arabia has not discovered a major oil field in 30 years.
- The world oil producers are running at near capacity.
- Demand will continue to grow from developing countries, especially China.
- NO NEGATIVE IMPACT ON WILDLIFE - the Central Arctic Caribou Herd which migrates through Prudhoe Bay has grown form 3000 animals to over 32,000 since the north shore development.
- Arctic technology has advanced dramatically - If Prudhoe Bay were built today it would have a 64% smaller footprint.
Given the national security considerations, the high price of gas and the instability of our oil supplies how can the democratic party be against development of ANWR?
The only solution the democratic party has given is to tap the Strategic Oil Reserve, Dem Charles Schumer. Brilliant long term solution by the democrat from New York. This was meant to shield us from disruption in supply, not to temporarily lower the price of gas which is still far below the 1981 price, (after being adjusted for inflation).
Once again we have bold leadership from the democratic party. Just like Social Security their answer is simple, do nothing, there's no immediate crisis!
|
It would go a long way toward convincing me otherwise if I saw Teddy Kennedy ride a bike to work, too.