I love it when CNN, PBS, and the other liberal news outlets show alleged footage of ANWR when they are doing stories on the controversy. Invariably, they show spectacular scenery with awesome mountain ranges, bears, waterfalls, etc. If that scenery is shot in ANWR at all (and I doubt seriously that it is) it is by no means representative of the landscape there. Colleagues of mine (many who lean left environmentally) who have been there say it is basically a vast, relatively barren tundra. Moreover, the proposals to drill there involve only a VERY limited part of the area. Few people in the lower 48 states realize just how much of Alaska is tied up in National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, and now off-limits National Forests. It is truely a staggering amount of territory. Moreover, some of those parks are so remote as to have virtually NO visitors. Just go to the National Park Service web site and check out how many parks are in Alaska and how many acres they represent. And remember, that's just the NATIONAL PARKS. Never mind the wildlife reguges, STATE parks, national forests, and STATE forests. I understand the frustration of Alaskans who are surrounded by government lands and are unable to economically develop their state.
I agree. I get totally cracked up when I see the media portraying ANWR as some kind of nature utopia. It really just looks like the moon minus the craters. Here's a pic of ANWR in the summer... Summer
I think we need to look for more oil both offshore and in the ANWR. Anything to lessen our dependence on Arab oil has to be a good thing! Bring back Nuclear plants too - very cleaner and cheaper than oil or coal produced power.
I say this with trepidation because I can't be certain that you're not laying on heavy irony with that post, but if those are truly your feelings, we've finally found something upon which we can agree. Perhaps this revelation won't cause you to break into song-and-dance, but at least it shows there's a subject upon which we're not violently opposed.
True.. Pebble bed reactors are much cleaner and safer than anything in the past. France generates something like 70+% of its electricity via nuclear power but the same crowd that venerates France would never allow us to emulate many of their ways....
