Bill would permanently bar drilling in Alaskan refuge
January 6, 2007

Story Highlights• New bill in House would make coastal strip in Alaska a protected wilderness
• Foes of oil drilling "on the offense" as Democrats take over Congress
• Alaska Sen. Stevens, Bush support tapping area's estimated 10.5 billion barrels

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Opponents of oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge are going on the offense after playing defense for a quarter of a century. They want the new Democratic Congress to make an oft-challenged drilling ban permanent.

Legislation introduced in the House on Friday would make the oil-rich 1.2 million-acre coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a permanently protected wilderness and end repeated efforts to open the area east of the Prudhoe oil field to energy companies.

"The consensus is that there should not be drilling in the refuge, so the logical next step is to pass legislation which turns it into a wilderness," Rep. Edward Markey, chief sponsor of the legislation, said in an interview.


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Critics fear expanded drilling would lead to more spills like this one in August at the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska.

From Catherine's link:



NO. The technology isn't going to limit the footprint. Only backers of drilling 'point out' how small that footprint is going to be. Of course they do that with generous use of twisted 'facts', amounting to a huge lie.

Cute things like, 'no bigger than a football field'. Alright, divide that football field into tiny pieces and spread those pieces over a huge area and you have the actual footprint. GIGANTIC!

The backers of drilling only count pieces of land where there is actual contact with the ground, like the feet of the pipeline are counted but the pipeline isn't. It isn't touching the ground.

And roads and airfields are not counted. Nor are the buildings that house equipment or people.

If this country really cares about becomming energy independent, why did the 109th Congress vote down CAFE standards which would save far more oil than we can drill in ANWR? Why didn't it explore renewable energy resources rather than depending on same ol' same ol' polluting oil and coal?

Maybe the 110th Congress can do better.

http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic/

http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic/map.html

http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic/fastfacts.html