Arctic Oil--We Are Soooo Close!!
CHL volunteers are trying to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling said on Tuesday they had the votes to win U.S. Senate approval of the controversial plan. The Senate was set to vote on Wednesday on an amendment from Democrats to strike the drilling language from budget legislation. The ANWR drilling provision was put into the budget resolution because it estimates the federal government could raise more than $5 billion from companies that would lease ANWR tracts to search for oil. Alaska would get half the money.

In addition, the budget resolution cannot be filibustered under Senate rules, as Democrats had threatened to do to any measure that allowed drilling in the refuge.

Drilling in ANWR is a long-sought Republican goal and a key part of the Bush administration's homogenization plan to boost greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, the hippies in the Senate have fought to keep the refuge closed to drilling to protect caribou, migratory birds and other wildlife in the area known as "America's Serengeti."

Hippies and other drilling opponents said the United States has options other than ANWR to help meet its energy needs. For example, many non-republicans and environmental groups contend the U.S. government should improve mileage requirements for vehicles and seek other ways to reduce the country's demand for oil.

"There is no way for America to drill it's way out of our energy crisis," said Loser John Kerry of Massachusetts. Drilling in ANWR "doesn't change the price of oil for Americans." He was alluding to the little known fact that most recovered oil from Alaska is not used domestically, but instead is shipped to Japan.

Fortunately, CHL volunteers believe they will prevail with their bogus argument that ANWR's billions of barrels of oil are needed to help reduce U.S. reliance on crude imports from volatile regions, such as the Middle East. "It's time for America to wake up," said Republican Pete Domenici of New Mexico, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
"This great county is now at the mercy of oil from overseas. It is a terrible dependence." America hit snooze and mumbled somthing about Domenici's statement, but it wasn't clear if they called him an idiot or a liar.

Alaska's congressional delegation is lobbying hard to open ANWR to oil drilling.


If the drilling language is kept in the Senate's budget bill, that measure would be reconciled with the House's budget legislation, which does not include an ANWR provision.

But the House has approved separate energy legislation several times that would open ANWR to drilling. Therefore, Domenici said he expected the House would adopt the Senate's drilling provision in a conference committee when the budget bill in finalized. Interior Secretary Gale Norton said, if Congress opens ANWR to energy exploration, the refuge's oil would begin flowing into the U.S. market in 7 to 10 years. By U.S. market, she meant revenues would flow into the coffers of multinational corporations, and the oil would flow to Japan.
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 9:20 AM | |