Oil Companies found oil in the Florida Straits (the area between Florida and Cuba), and the US decided the risk was too great to let oil wells be developed there. A blowout would be too catastrophic. So now China (with the help of Nigeria) is going after that oil, and America can't do anything about it. Cuba gave out the permits. And the whole world laughs at us. Then there is ANWR, The rest of the world knows there is no Caribou there during the winter when drilling would have to be done, yet most Americans believe the environmentalist that it would endanger the Caribou. Now Oil has been found off the coast of Northern Alaska, and the environmentalist are at it again, and Americans are letting them get away with it again. There is more Polar Bears now than ever recorded, they are expanding their range, and they have been found 350 miles south of the Northern Coast inland. As the whole world laughs. When President Bush ask the Saudis to increase oil production, they said NO! They know we don't have the capability to refine it anyway, it would just go to China and India. And again the whole world would laugh.
Got this from the Fairbanks Daily News Miner today, and I left some of the comments in for your information on how some folks feel.:
Democrats introduce bill aimed at boosting polar bear protection
By R. A. Dillon
Published Sunday, May 18, 2008
WASHINGTON — Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill Thursday aimed at bolstering protection for the polar bear.
The Polar Bear Seas Protection Act, co-sponsored by Reps. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., would require the Department of the Interior to designate critical habitat for polar bears and mandate improvements to oil spill clean-up technology before offshore development could proceed in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
The bill is designed to counter the Bush administration’s finding that there is not a direct link between oil and natural gas activity and the loss of Arctic sea ice, which the bears depend on for their survival.
Sen. John Kerry introduced a similar bill in the Senate earlier this year.
On Wednesday, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said he was listing the polar bear as a threatened species because of the disappearance of Arctic sea ice caused by rising temperatures.
Kempthorne said studies by the U.S. Geological Survey show that the polar bear could become an endangered species within the next 45 years.
The decision comes with a catch: Kempthorne said there was no scientific evidence connecting oil and gas activity in the Arctic with the loss of polar bear habitat, and he issued rules designed to limit potential harm to the economy as a result of the listing.
That drew howls of protest from Democrats and environmentalists, who said they would most certainly challenge Kempthorne’s assertion that there’s not a causal relationship between specific projects that result in the release of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere and the loss of critical habitat for polar bears.
“While the listing was a long overdue recognition of scientific reality, the administration included a poison pill by ruling out the one thing that would make it meaningful — an effective policy to stop global warming,” Inslee said.
The Bush administration’s decision to add the polar bear to the Endangered Species List was a “farce” meant to allow the oil industry to continue with business as usual, Hinchey said.
The bill would also direct the National Research Council to improve its polar bear research to see the potential impacts of offshore oil and gas development.
The polar bear is the first species to be listed as a result of global warming.
Democrats lead poll
Lefty blog Daily Kos is touting a new poll showing Anchorage Democrat Ethan Berkowitz with a 10 percentage point lead over Republican incumbent Don Young in the U.S. House race.
Asked who they would support if the general election was held today, 50 percent of respondents said Berkowitz, compared to 40 percent who picked Young. Berkowitz won 57 percent of the Independent vote in the poll; Young received 34 percent.
Some 83 percent of Democrats said they had a favorable opinion of Berkowitz. Fifty-four percent of Independents, who will likely decide this year’s two congressional races, had a good opinion of Berkowitz, while only 18 percent of Independents said they had a negative opinion. Twenty-eight percent of Independents said they had no opinion.
Some 38 percent of Republicans said they had a negative opinion of Berkowitz, but 40 percent said they were either undecided or had no opinion.
Some 62 percent of Republicans said they have a favorable opinion of Young, though 34 percent said they did not. Thirty-four percent of Independents said they liked Young, while 63 percent said they had a negative opinion of the incumbent.
The poll, which surveyed 600 likely voters statewide, was conducted between May 12-14, by Research 2000 at the behest of Daily Kos. The survey has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
The numbers are consistent with other recent polls.
The same poll shows Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich leading GOP warhorse Ted Stevens by 5 points. Begich would be the choice of 48 percent of those responding if the election was held today. Forty-three percent said they would vote for Stevens.
While Stevens and Begich did comparably well among voters of their own parties, some 56 percent of Independents said they would vote for Begich — more than 36 percent who said they would choose Stevens. A full 10 percent of Republicans said they were still undecided.
Nearly 30 percent of Republicans said they had no opinion of Begich, while 22 percent of Independents said the same.
Sixty-three percent of Independents said they had an unfavorable opinion of Stevens, while 32 percent said they had a favorable opinion of the 84-year-old senator. Among Republicans, 37 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of Stevens. Sixty percent of Republicans said they had a good opinion of him.
On the presidential level, 49 percent of those polled said they would vote for Republican John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama, 42 percent.
McCain does even better against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Some 55 percent of voters said they would choose McCain, compared with 37 percent who selected Clinton.
Mistaken mountain
U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer sought to show the ties he and his family have to Colorado in his first campaign ad with an image of Pikes Peak. Unfortunately, the mountain featured in the ad wasn’t Pikes Peak but Alaska’s own Mount McKinley.
Dick Wadhams, Schaffer’s campaign manager, told the Denver Post that the spot would be re-edited with Colorado peaks and would be back on the air almost immediately.
And finally ...
Don Young isn’t the only member of the House of Representatives capable of puzzling reporters with his comments on the need to allow oil and natural gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Speaking on the House floor May 8, Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert said those who oppose opening ANWR fail to take into account that caribou on the North Slope consider hot oil an aphrodisiac, The Hill newspaper recently reported.
“Oh my goodness, if we put a drilling rig out there it may destroy our caribou,” Gohmert said in mock concern. “We heard the same thing some years back, that if we put a pipeline through some of this area up north it was going to kill off the last 27 head of caribou.
“You know what happened? The pipeline went in — that oil is warm going through that pipeline and what happened is it makes the caribou amorous. Now when caribou want to go on a date, they invite each other to go over to the pipeline.”
Comments
1.
James
5/18/2008, 5:28 a.m.
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More hysteria from the leaders. I wonder how many Polar bears have died as a result of oil companies? I’d venture a guess at none.
The biggest threat to the polar bear is the sport shooting by the natives. That is where the protection needs to begin. I have seen it and it is an indisputable fact.
2.
user6244
5/18/2008, 7:03 a.m.
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Right now if anyone took the time to look at the studies or if you cornered a scientist's that conducted the studies and asked if the current population of polar bears is stable, they would have to admit that the current population is stable and that any declines recently noted in specific areas are well within normal variations based on past observations.
If you asked them about the future chance of the polar bear becoming extinct, they may say it's possible , but would also have to admit (as they did in the study) that the computer simulations that are used to predict ice melt have a wide degree of error.
They would also have to admit that the cause of the declining ice sheets may have more to do with the the wind than it has to do with a warming.
Visit NASA
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/looking...
Placing the polar bear on the endangered species act will in effect put a huge drag on our ability to explore and develop new gas and oil reserves, which will only increase and lengthen the pain that everyone is currently enduring due to high cost of energy.
One thing for certain when it comes to placing the Polar bears on the endangered species act.
There will be no wide degree of error in it's negative effect on the economy and the prosperity it will bring to lawyers.
3.
tbear44
5/18/2008, 7:23 a.m.
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why do democrats always feel the need to ruin the U.S. economy and cater to special interest groups?
4.
starman
5/18/2008, 8:19 a.m.
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The only good bear is a dead bear. That's from the perspective of a man who has been chased by two grizzly bears. The first attack ended with me in my truck safely. The second ended with the bear full of lead. You "Save the bears", need to get a clue.
5.
Tom58
5/18/2008, 9:26 a.m.
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"Placing the polar bear on the endangered species act will in effect put a huge drag on our ability to explore and develop new gas and oil reserves"
That's the whole idea, of course. Then you blame the oil companies when an artificially small supply and increasing worldwide demand drive prices through the roof.
