A Road To Victory Through Alaska?
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=301100996715667
~~John Cronin~~
By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, July 16, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Election:
There’s little doubt voters want more drilling if even congressional candidates are starting to trek to Alaska to urge more oil development. Seven are there now. [ Editor's Note: Jason Chaffetz is one of the candidates making the fact-finding trip] That’s a wake-up call to Congress.
Congressional challenger Craig Williams of Pennsylvania spoke to us Wednesday by phone from Deadhorse, Alaska. He and six other Republican candidates think there’s enough voter disapproval with Congress’ failure to do anything about gas prices to win this election, even in a season when Democrats are believed to have the advantage.
“We’ve got a Democratic Congress doing absolutely nothing. Even the Republicans (before them) didn’t do anything. So we are now paying $4 a gallon for gas. It’s an emergency,” Williams said.
The House, under Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has gone well beyond complacency and into obstruction. “We’ve got about a dozen bills ready for the floor of Congress, and they won’t allow any of the legislation to move forward,” Williams said. Democrats “are afraid of a Republican amendment on an energy bill and won’t allow it before the election.
The so-called Greens are portraying ANWR has heaven on earth, but I heard a pundit describe it this way: “If Hell ever did freeze over, this is what it would be like.”
The proposed drilling areas are on the coastal plain, not in the idyllic mountain ranges. When the spring thaw comes, it leaves behind huge ponds of stagnant water that dot the landscape and are a breeding ground for some of the worst mosquitoes who can imagine.
The drilling area is not located in one spot but is scattered over an area of about 2,000 acres, about the size of a major U.S. airport.
For starters, he noted, the potential drilling areas aren’t the idyllic tourist paradises environmentalists suggest. “That’s not where any drilling is proposed,” he said.
Take the tiny sliver of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge proposed for energy development, where 10 billion barrels of oil await. It’s an icy coastal plain, said Williams. “It’s still pretty, and people have homes here, but it’s not what you see on TV,” he said.
People in the area desperately need jobs, and polls consistently show 75% approval for more drilling, Crockett said.
July 17th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Testing. Comments not allowed on original post. This is a test comment.