Congress Gossip Blog
Drill in Alaska. But Where, Exactly?
July 18, 2008 - by Donny Shaw
Republicans want to drill for oil in ANWR. Democrats want to increase drilling in the neighboring NPR-A region (pictured above). Meanwhile, the price of gas goes up.
The Crypt reports:
House Democrats failed again on Thursday to pass a measure requiring oil producers to drill on leased land.
The bill fell short because Democrats tried to approve it under revised rules that prevented Republicans from offering an alternative measure to open new land for domestic oil and gas exploration.
[...]
The Democrats’s Drill Responsibly in Leased Land Act, or DRILL Act, failed under suspension, 244-173, well short of the two-thirds majority required to approve legislation under those rules.
The bill would have required oil producers to abandon leased land on which they are not currently producing oil. A previous measure, offered before members left town for their Fourth of July recess, also failed under suspension rules.
The legislation on the floor Thursday would have also required the administration to issue annual drilling permits for land in Alaska set aside for the National Petroleum Reserve. In addition, the bill directed the Department of the Interior to work with oil companies to complete a pipeline linking wells in that 23-million acre reserve and another natural gas pipeline connecting Alaska to the lower 48 states.
On her website, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says, “even though it has more oil than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (10.6 billion barrels vs. 10.4 billion barrels) and it has been open to drilling for 26 years, only four lease sales have been conducted since 1999, and only 14% of the NPR-A is leased. And she adds that “unlike ANWR, which is protected by law from drilling as an environmental preservation area, NPR-A is already designated for oil and gas production so it could occur more rapidly.”
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Nancy Pelosi is incorrect about the how much oil the NPRA has in comparison to ANWR and the bill would have done nothing to increase drilling in NPRA. That is already being done. There is correct information about this bill at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce site if you are interested in learning the truth about this sham bill.
Nancy Pelosi has got to go.
The fact that Democrats aren't willing to work with Republicans is VERY FRUSTRATING! Americansolutions.com has a petition and action center for people to get involved and to put an end to this bulloney!
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George Bush and all his big oil buddies have to go. Drilling is worthless. End the speculation. Force automakers to bring out electric hybrids that get 100mpg, with local drives of 40 - 50 miles powered by electric only. The technology is there. This is nothing but Robber Baron politics.
Seems to me once again our government is going all backwards on this issue as they do on many others, I will explain later but must say this first. Nancy Pelosi is just a plain old straight up idiot who is only out for herself and no one else. I really don’t believe that she backed Hillary (during Dem. Primary) another democrat female and a powerful one. I think that Nancy thought it would steal her thunder, knock the wind out of her sails BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, YADA, YADA, YADA but enough slamming for now. Why would the government not let the Gas/Oil companies have a due diligence on different sites in both areas with the help of the government’s specialists? Then they have the best places with a government official so called blessing. Once again I believe that the EPA was designed and commissioned to help companies not harass them, but that is a whole different discussion all together.
1 Work with Gas and Oil to determine best places to drill.
2 If need be go before congress with evidence that permission is needed to drill in protected area (may not even be needed).
3 Review set forth plans and approve
4 Save plan
5 Reuse same plan instead of re-inventing the damn wheel all the time
Meanwhile this would still be 8-10 years out what do we do in the mean time? Seems that we need to go back to the whole capitalistic plan of inventors and manufacturing companies will produce what the consumers ask for if their voices are loud enough. Don’t get me wrong I believe that we should do all we can do to protect the universe not just the planet. I believe the technology is out there and been there for years but the demand for that technology has not, now we are getting close. I’ll get off my soapbox and let some one else get up here.
I have lived in Alaska for 40 years. The oil companies own us. There is not a need to drill, drill, drill. There is a need to uncap and let it flow. don't be fooled by the oil companies.
To the Alaska Anon. What do you mean just uncap the oil and let it flow? Too bad it's not that easy.
The bottom line is we need to switch to renewable energy quickly, and need to find new sources of oil on our land, here in the USA!!!!!! We need to STOP importing oil from Anti-American countries, they are getting rich at our expense. The Republicans and Democrats need to work together instead of bickering.
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