The Hypocritical Democrats
Democrats are faulting President Bush for failing to secure energy independence.
It's remarkable, from the group of people who have filibustered every attempt to drill in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve -- and what's more, they want to make the ban permanent.
It's remarkable, from the group of people who have filibustered every attempt to drill in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve -- and what's more, they want to make the ban permanent.
posted by LadybugUSA at 6:44 PM
5 Comments:
That is quite some spinning Carol.
Drilling in ANWR has failed in "up and down" vote for decades and quite a number of Republicans vote against opening it to drilling for good reasons.
Senior Senator Stevens(R) of Alaska put opening up ANWR in military (war) appropriations and the Democrats threatened to filibuster this dirty move by Stevens. Opening ANWR had failed to get the needed votes less than a year earlier on its own merits.
Two blatantly obvious practical issues regarding drilling in ANWR are that there is not enough oil there and the Alaska pipeline is past it's life of service. If you follow the news, BP recently had to shut down on the North Slope for many months due to corrosion and failure of the Alaska pipeline.
There is actually a much more abundant energy supply in Alaska, that of natural gas. Alaska politicians have been fighting to build a pipeline from Alaska, thru Canada to the lower 48. The energy companies have been blocking this for at least a decade now because it would drop natural gas prices. As a result Alaska liquefies the natural gas and ships it to Asia.
Certainly Bush could use his bully pulpit to get the players to the table, get the infrastructure built and bring the natural gas to market but, he isn't for lower energy pricing, rather maximizing Petro industry profits.
What was the rationale behind Clinton's hesitancy to drill there? I remember it was along the lines of, it will take years to get the oil online. Well the years have come and gone and now we need the oil more than ever. If for nothing more than to demonstrate energy independence.Like just about everything else in the Clintonian Rule a little forward thinking would have gone a long way. That is the difference between a visionary and a reactionary.
Johnny,
Oil needs to be about $ 30/bbl to make drilling in ANWR economically feasible. During much of Clinton's presidency oil traded around $ 10/bbl.
Well we can set up windfarms - as long as they do not obstruct Kennedy's view?
Despite what you say about feasibility or costs of drilling in ANWAR, E2C, the post was referring to the Dems obstructing the move and then saying Bush hasn't done enough to secure independence. So they get in his way and then say he hasn't performed.
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