Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is fucked.

[tuvor]

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Drilling credibility

After years of resisting a bad idea, Congress appears close to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling in the worst possible way: dishonestly.

Republicans have put the proposal into a budget bill, avoiding a potential filibuster in the Senate if it were honestly treated as a legislative matter. Even so, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., put up the good fight, coming just three votes from stopping the environmentally destructive plan with a floor amendment Thursday.

With President Bush eager to give the oil companies an early holiday present, one of the last lines of defense for the refuge is the U.S. House of Representatives. GOP leaders will put heavy pressure on U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Bellevue, and other Republicans who question the plundering of pristine public lands.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/247045_drilled.asp

[tatertop]

1. Yep. It is totally fucked.

That is your gubm't at work.
I wish I had some encouraging or even intelligent response.
I have none.

[Erika]

2. We'll take Congress back in 2006

and reverse these insane GOP actions.

[tuvor]

3. Hopefully, but don't depend on it.

We were saying the very same things one year and one day ago.

[MissWaverly]

4. You are totally right

Even if intelligent limited development might have been an option, this will not be it, it will be NEW ORLEANS II, by the folks that
brought you NEW ORLEANS, I - A total disaster, on an environmental
level, on a human level, total disregard and abuse of the Alaskan
native population, no foresight just greed, and after they pillage Alaska, they will move on like some barbaric horde leaving nothing but scarred earth beneath their feet. A the beauty that took millions of year to create will be totally gone, all for a few paper dollars that are quickly losing their value.

[adigal]

5. With Bush at 35%, and Dems outpolling Repubs

for 2006 by like 9 percentage points, can you believe these idiot republicans are doing things like cutting Medicaid, Medicare, college loans, and voting to drill in Alaska.

They are building their own scaffold for 2006. Amazing.

[lyonn]

12. It's call gettin' while the gettin' is good

They must know their days are numbered and they are going for it, take all they can while they can and destroy all the positive that dems have worked so hard to accomplish. Grover Norquist will be so proud.

[depakid]

21. I dunno

I don't think it looks very good for the Dems so far.

The only reason I can see to vote for them is that they're not Republicans. Other than that, the perception is that they don't stand for very much- and the DINO's that trot out on the "news" programs certainly don't help in that regard.

The far right will keep pressing its issues- and the might just keep winning.

[BillZBubb]

6. If we don't win the Senate back in 2006, then yes.

If the sheeple finally wake up, we can stop this before any damage is done.

[DanCa]

7. You know with all the huricanes lately am really worried what the

drilling would do to global warming.

[Bru]

8. Dual Dans did the Amendment in

Akaka and Inouye both voted against Cantwell's amendment. If they had voted for it, and if Corzine would've been there for the vote (taking just a little time out of his campaigning), the amendment would've passed 51 to 48.

Ted Stevens called ANWR a "barren wasteland" or something like that. This is the kind of politics people have to deal with up here. If it's not something you can make a profit off of, it doesn't mean anything for Alaska Republicans.

I think this quote sums things up:

"In some places, such as the Arctic Range, the wildlife and natural values are so magnificent and so enduring that they transcend the value of any mineral that may lie beneath the surface. Such minerals are finite. Production inevitably means changes whose impacts will be measured in geologic time in order to gain marginal benefits that may last a few years." - Cecil Andrus, Secretary of the Interior

[JohnnyCougar]

11. Welcome To DU, brother Bru

Bru is my brother, so give him a warm DU welcome!

:toast:

[lyonn]

13. Welcome Bru to DU

nt

[newyawker99]

22. Hi Bru!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[MissWaverly]

9. What Teddy Roosevelt said still applies

Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the 'the game belongs to the people.' So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.
A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open, 1916

[jim3775]

10. This effects Canadians too, ANWR stretches into Canada

We could be on the receiving end of any environmental problems and we will have to foot the bill (if anything major happens) without any help from the Americans. Needless to say this is causing a lot of concern up north.

[CHIMO]

19. Yep

Borders the Yukon and into the Canadian Ocean.



http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/oil/anwar.html

[fooj]

14. I am heartbroken over this...

:cry:

[Raiden]

15. Once land is set aside for something such as a National Park or ANWR

It shouldn't be tampered with. I'll stand by the rule of law in this instance.

[Rene]

16. What part of the word REFUGE do they not understand!

We need to mark e v e r y o n e who votes FOR drilling and actively campaign against their re-election. Any company involved in supplying a n y supplies to that endevor should be boycotted.

[DanCa]

17. Welcome to DU Rene -

You know isn't in the bible that were supposed to be caretakers and stewards of the earth? Oh these are republicans they belong to that red god faith. :D

[Bru]

18. Call Akaka and Inouye!!!

Tell them what you think of their votes that allowed the ANWR drilling provision to pass.

Inouye - 202-224-3934
Akaka - 202-224-6361

I haven't been able to find any press releases or statements from them explaining themselves. I hope it's not because they were playing wet nurse to Stevens.

[JohnnyCougar]

20. Apparently some stupid agreement is more important than mother nature.

Why would these two stick up for Stevens and Murkowski? What a shame.