Bush lifts moratorium on Bristol Bay drilling (few days old but I had not seen it)

[Flabbergasted]

http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/011407/hom_20070114099.shtml

By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

President Bush's decision to lift a ban on oil and gas drilling in Bristol Bay is being roundly applauded by Gov. Sarah Palin and severely criticized by fishermen and others over environmental issues.

Palin responded quickly and approvingly to the announcement that clears the way for the Interior Department to open 5.6 million acres of Bristol Bay for it's next five-year oil and gas leasing plan.

“It is gratifying that the federal government is again looking north to Alaska to provide the energy our nation needs,” Palin said. “Development in the Bristol Bay region could provide the jobs, economic diversification and energy the people of this region need. If we can be sure it will not threaten the fisheries that are the foundation of the region's economy and way of life, I'm all for it.”

There are believed to be 200 million barrels of oil and 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas beneath the bay's federal waters three miles to 200 miles from shore. The Interior Department last year estimated energy development could produce up to 11,500 jobs and new tax revenue for the state.

The area is home to the world's richest sockeye salmon fishery and is also known for its endangered North Pacific right whales.

Concern over fisheries prompted Congress to put the bay off limits to drilling in 1990 after the massive Exxon Valdez tanker oil spill on the other side of the peninsula in Prince William Sound. Later, then-President Clinton added his own drilling ban, one that had been continued by Bush.

[Joanne98]

1. I saw it. He never stops SUCKING OIL!

I don't know how he did it but the dems need to UNDUE IT!

[Blue_In_AK]

2. The US seems bound and determined to wreck Bristol Bay.

If you haven't seen it yet, please sign this petition regarding probably an even greater threat to the world's #1 sockeye salmon fishery, the proposed Pebble mine.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/387663692?z00m=9408128<l=1168472666