Alaskan Crude is On The Way
Dearest CHL Supporters:

In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor event. However, because the hippies have fetishized this particular area, it will come as quite a psychological blow to them when the deal is done. Soldier on!

The Senate Energy Committee voted on Wednesday to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling as part of a broad budget bill to fund the fiscally and morally bankrupt federal government. Tapping the refuge's few barrels of crude oil is a key part of the Bush administration's national energy plan to boost domestic production. In a joint press conference held in a suburban neighborhood, hippie groups and many Democrats denounced the drilling, saying that instead of threatening the habitat of wildlife in ANWR, lawmakers should look at ways to cut oil consumption with more fuel-efficient vehicle standards. Then they all got in their cars and drove home.

The refuge, which is about the size of South Carolina, sprawls across more than 19 million acres in northeastern Alaska. It is home to polar bears, musk oxen, caribou and migratory birds. The energy panel approved the ANWR drilling provision, 13-9. All Republicans on the committee, except Gordon Smith of Oregon, voted in favor of the plan. Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Daniel Akaka of Hawaii also voted for drilling. "Opening ANWR is sound public policy that would serve the country well many years into the future," said Pete Domenici, the Republican chairman of the committee. The oil produced from the wildlife refuge "would provide some cushion" for U.S. supplies, he said. "Cushion" was left undefined in the bill.

The legislative proposal will be folded into a much bigger budget bill to fund the federal government, which the Senate Budget Committee is scheduled to vote on next week and the full U.S. Senate the following week. Our brilliant Republican leaders decided to attach the Alaska drilling plan to budget legislation because under Senate rules the giant spending bill cannot be filibustered. They argue the drilling language can be in the budget bill because it will raise an estimated $2.4 billion in leasing revenue for the government.
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 9:37 AM | |