Vote democrat and watch your jobs go away due to high fuel prices. Effing idiots.
If only we'd act like the republicans have been trying to do for years: (from 2005)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-12-20-our-view_x.htm
Time to drill in AlaskaThe nation's painful but fleeting experience with $3 a gallon gasoline this summer demonstrated the need to both increase the supply of oil and curb demand for it. (
Related: Opposing view)
The disruptions from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita also showed how domestic oil production is dangerously concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico region.
Drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the largest untapped oil pool in the country, is no panacea for the nation's energy problems. But it's a necessary step to augment long-term supply, one that can make the nation less vulnerable to the whims of nature and oil-producing countries.
The Senate is expected to vote as early as today on an amendment — tacked on to a $453 billion military spending bill by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska — that would allow drilling in ANWR. Ideally, after more than 20 years of debate, drilling in that refuge should rise or fall on its own merits. But, as the old saying goes, laws and sausage are two things you don't want to watch being made.
Despite the unfortunate choice of legislative vehicles, there are good reasons the Senate should vote to permit ANWR drilling, as the House of Representatives did Monday:
• ANWR has at least 6 billion and maybe 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil, U.S. Geological Survey says. It could provide 1 million barrels a day for 30 years, or about 5% of daily consumption. It wouldn't reduce gas prices next week or next year, but it would help ease the nation's long-term energy crunch.
• It could be done without wrecking the environment. Opponents claim drilling would ruin the pristine beauty of the refuge. But the experience with oil development at nearby Prudhoe Bay is encouraging. The caribou herd has flourished there, and newer technology means the environmental impact of drilling can be minimized.
Only 2,000 acres of the 19 million-acre ANWR refuge would be subject to drilling, in an area so remote that few Americans not associated with the oil industry will ever see it.
• Drilling would have economic benefits. It could create 250,000 to 735,000 jobs nationwide, supporters say. Energy companies would pay as much as $10 billion for the rights to drill in ANWR, to be evenly split between Alaska and the federal government, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Drilling in ANWR is no substitute for smart conservation policies, including gasoline taxes high enough to dampen demand. The nation also needs to promote alternative fuels and more energy-efficient vehicles, homes and offices.
Even so, the world's thirst for oil is outstripping the industry's ability to produce it. That imbalance has driven up energy prices and can't be fixed through conservation alone. Allowing ANWR drilling would show that the nation is finally getting serious about acting in its best interest by tapping a rich energy source and curbing its dependence on Middle Eastern dictatorships.
Now that gasoline is again closer to $2 a gallon than $3, a sense of complacency is returning. That's predictable but regrettable. Extracting more oil from Alaska in an environmentally sensitive fashion is important insurance against future energy shocks.
