ANWR = Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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Now... A comparison
ANWR Reality And Murkowski's Failure To Open It
By Ted Gianoutsos, January 2010
This posting on the Internet at - thereisplentyofoil.com - shows the reality of ANWR in pictures quite well. Please look closely at the pictures. I will add my comments about the reality of ANWR, the continuing 30-year Murkowski father-daughter failure to open it, and why Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich prefer to just go through the motions on opening ANWR.
HERE IS A FULL COPY OF THE INTERNET SITE- thereisplentyofoil.com - POSTING:
FIRST... do you know what ANWR is?
ANWR = Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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Now... A comparison
And some perspective...
NOTE WHERE THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT AREA IS...
(it's in the "ANWR Coastal Plain")
THIS IS WHAT THE DEMOCRATS, LIBERALS AND "GREENS" SHOW YOU WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT ANWR
...and they are right... these ARE photographs of ANWR
ISN'T ANWR BEAUTIFUL? WHY SHOULD WE DRILL HERE (AND DESTROY) THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE?
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WELL... THAT'S NOT EXACTLY THE TRUTH
Do you remember the map?
The map showed that the proposed drilling area is in the ANWR Coastal Plain
Do those photographs look like a coastal plain to you?
WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
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THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE...
THAT IS NOT WHERE THEY ARE WANTING TO DRILL!
THIS IS WHAT THE PROPOSED EXPLORATION AREA ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE WINTER
AND THIS IS WHAT IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE SUMMER
HERE ARE A COUPLE SCREEN SHOTS FROM GOOGLE EARTH
AS YOU CAN SEE, THE AREA WHERE THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT DRILLING IS A BARREN WASTELAND.
OH... AND THEY SAY THAT THEY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE EFFECT ON THE LOCAL WILDLIFE...
HERE IS A PHOTO (SHOT DURING THE SUMMER) OF THE "DEPLETED WILDLIFE" SITUATION CREATED BY DRILLING AROUND PRUDHOE BAY*...DON'T YOU THINK THAT THE CARIBOU REALLY HATE THAT DRILLING?
HERE'S THAT SAME SPOT DURING THE WINTER.
HEY, THIS BEAR SEEMS TO REALLY HATE THE PIPELINE NEAR PRUDHOE BAY*...
*The Prudhoe bay area accounts for 17% of U.S. domestic oil production
NOW, WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THE DEMOCRATS ARE LYING ABOUT ANWR?
REMEMBER WHEN AL GORE SAID THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD WORK TO ARTIFICIALLY RAISE GAS PRICES TO $5.00 A GALLON?
WELL...
AL GORE AND HIS FELLOW DEMOCRATS HAVE ALMOST REACHED THEIR GOAL!
NOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT THE DEMOCRATS HAVE BEEN LYING, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
HERE IS THE REST OF MY "ANWR Reality And Murkowski's Failure To Open It" ARTICLE.
The 2,000 acres of ANWR coastal plain that would be used for oil and gas production are a much smaller portion of total Alaska wilderness than they are of ANWR's 19 million acres. The greenies in their over-zealous opposition to developing ANWR's natural oil and gas energy resources continually try to portray ANWR as "the Serengeti of the North" and as a unique wilderness in Alaska. That is simply not true. Indeed it is a ridiculous fanatical exaggeration.
The simple truth is that ALL of Alaska is wild. Alaska is one-fifth the size of the entire United States, with only one-500th of America's population. Alaska has far more coastline than America's West Coast, Gulf Coast, and East Coast combined. All of Alaska's 375 million acres are wilderness. Just because the federal government has designated 80 million acres as national wildlife refuges and another 81 million acres as national parks, national forests, and BLM lands, it does not change the reality of all of Alaska being wild.
In the rest of the United States that is only five times bigger than Alaska but that has 500 times more people than Alaska it may make sense in some cases to designate certain areas as wilder than others. But in Alaska's 375 million acres teaming with wildlife of all kinds and containing extremely few people to say that one part of Alaska is wilder than another or indeed to pretend that ANWR is some kind of uniquely pristine wilderness is nonsensical.
The proof of Alaska's total wildness is the reality of Anchorage, Alaska's largest city by far and home to nearly half of Alaska's population. Anchorage is also home to more than 1,000 moose and several dozen bears that freely and wildly roam throughout the city. Every year there are human-moose and human-bear encounters where people are hurt. Indeed there are so many moose in Anchorage and they are so ubiquitous throughout the city that the Anchorage Daily News publishes an annual moose photo-calendar.
The point is that ALL of Alaska's 375 million acres - including Anchorage - contain wild animals, some of which are very large and dangerous. The 2,000 acres to be used to produce two trillion dollars' worth of Alaskan oil and gas are not just a very small portion of ANWR's 19 million acre wilderness, those 2,000 acres are truly minuscule portion of Alaska's 375 million acre wilderness. That is the true proportion of the extremely small amount of land that would be used to produce a huge amount of revenue to say nothing of the principal source of American energy - OIL - that fuels our national security, economy, and way of life.
Opening ANWR to responsible oil and gas development and using a minuscule portion of Alaska's abundant wilderness to produce billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of gas is obviously in America's best interest. So why has it not been done? The answer is very simple. For nearly 30 years the greenies have been successful in peddling their ANWR lies and exaggerations using their propaganda to keep ANWR closed and raise a ton of money for themselves while doing so. Unfortunately, father-daughter Murkowski with their 30 years of failed and flawed ANWR legislation have helped the greenies succeed.
Last year a liberal Lisa Murkowski joined forces with an even more liberal Mark Begich and introduced their joint "ANWR No Surface Occupancy Western Arctic Coastal Plain Domestic Energy Security Act". The Murkowski/Begich bill was described as a "concession to the environmental movement which is against exploration in ANWR" even though mainstream common sense Americans, many of whom are environmentalists and wildlife conservationists, are not against a reasonable approach to opening ANWR.
The ones who are against any approach to opening ANWR, even the most reasonable, are the greenies who are fanatics. By definition, fanatics whether they are intellectual, religious, or political fanatics, are extremists who are intolerant, irrational, and unreasonable. They take full advantage of oil's multiple benefits to their lives especially of oil's fueling of their freedom and security. Yet they help the United Nations foreign greenies to weaken America's supremacy in the world by forcing a too rapid change from the oil that fuels America's dominance to presently unreliable alternative sources of energy.
As fanatics and extremists, the greenies adamantly refuse to work with their fellow Americans in finding better ways to more responsibly produce American and especially Alaskan ANWR natural oil and gas energy resources to fuel their own country. Their selfish interest is to block by any and all means including lies, distortions, and frivolous law suits, the opening of ANWR for their own self-serving fundraising agenda. These are the folks that Lisa and Mark want to make concessions to with their directional drilling ANWR legislation.
Just how nonsensical is the Murkowski-Begich bill? It is very plain to see. The title says it all. The "ANWR No Surface Occupancy Western Arctic Coastal Plain Domestic Energy Security Act", or ANSOWACPDESA for short, principally seeks to directionally drill only 10% of ANWR's oil from offshore. That's like telling a California surfer that it's too environmentally disturbing to surf in the ocean where it makes sense to surf, and instead to do his surfing on the beach on the sand dunes. Even a spaced-out surfer would respond to such a nonsensical proposition with, "Say what Dude! You want me to surf the sand dunes instead of the ocean waves? Bummer, man!"
Directional drilling was developed by the oil industry to be more efficient and to reduce the footprint of an individual oil drilling pad. Directional drilling in ANWR is useful and more efficient inside ANWR, not from outside, especially off-shore where it is more difficult, harder to clean up spills, and only accesses 10% of ANWR's oil.
The real concession that the Murkowski-Begich ANSOWACPDESA bill makes is that Lisa and Mark are agreeing with the greenies fanatical exaggeration that the ANWR coastal plain is so uniquely pristine that it can't be drilled from the inside where it makes the most common sense to drill. Truth be told, father-daughter Murkowski have been directionally shafting Alaskans on ANWR for 30 years now - vertically, diagonally, and horizontally. ANSOWACPDESA is but the latest example.
Even more ridiculous is the fact that Lisa and Mark attached their bill to the greenie Ponzi scheme "Cap and Trade" legislation that seeks to monetize greenhouse gasses turning them into a derivatives-driven scam. It is evident that liberal Lisa and more liberal Mark actually believe that human induced global warming-climate change is real, and not just another nonsensical craze-du-jour like the old population-bomb or nuclear-winter crazes.
Despite what the greenie fanatics say and what Lisa and Mark believe, global warming and cooling are a natural cyclical phenomenon that has been going on since the earth was formed. Mankind cannot heat or cool the world or change the climate. The climate does not adapt to humans. Humans, as well as all animals and plants, adapt to the climate. Lisa and Mark should know that Alaska's 42 active volcanoes alone produce far more so-called greenhouse gasses than Alaskans will ever produce no matter how many trucks and SUVs they own and drive.
The Murkowski-Begich ANSOWACPDESA bill will not open ANWR in the most beneficial way for America, for Alaska, and for wildlife because it is not high ground ANWR legislation that most Americans can understand - let alone support. But my proposed ANRA - Alaska Natural Resources Act - that creates the NEW - National Endowment for Wildlife - will open ANWR from the high ground, is easily understandable, makes common sense, and will earn the support of an overwhelming majority of Americans.
Most importantly, my high ground ANRA legislation is personified by my wife Francoise and me. We also personified the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Act of 1984 and are the only couple in American history to get an entire generic wildlife act through a divided congress in a few months to unanimous passage with 60 cosponsors including 22 chairmen and the leadership of both parties.
Neither Lisa Murkowski and her husband Vernon Martell nor Mark Begich and his wife Deborah Bonito personify the ANWR high ground. So why haven't Lisa and Mark introduced my winning ANRA bill that creates the NEW and used Francoise and me to personify it, instead of their nonsensical ANSOWACPDESA legislation? The answer is obvious. They really don't want to open ANWR. They prefer to talk ANWR and just go through the motions. Why? Because opening ANWR would fill Alaska's oil pipeline and flood Alaska with money making them and any pork they bring to Alaska largely irrelevant.
Frank Murkowski did the same thing. He went to the senate 30-years ago in 1980. He failed to open ANWR - by far the most important thing he could have done for America, Alaska, and wildlife - for the entire 22 years he was in the senate. He also failed for another 4 years as governor by wasting his time on a non-existent gas line instead of pulling out all the stops with his daughter in his old seat in the senate and us as the constituents of both of them to open ANWR and fill our all too real Alaska oil pipeline flowing at 2/3rds empty with ANWR oil.
Lisa has followed in her father's failed footsteps for 8 years now. Their failure has already cost America, Alaska, and wildlife hundreds of billions of dollars. ANWR could have easily been opened in 2002-2004 when all of the " Republican stars were aligned" if father-daughter Murkowski had only used us and our NEW-ANWR idea to do it. The full story of their failure 8 years ago will be the subject of an upcoming video complete with documentation. Suffice it to say in this article that ANWR would be open today with all of its many benefits were it not for father-daughter Murkowski putting themselves before America and Alaska.
As long as Stevens did the pork, Frank got away with talking ANWR for 22 years and largely doing squat. I have asked hundreds of Alaskans to name three things of real importance to Alaska and America that Frank did in his 22 years in the senate. While they all said that Stevens, whether they liked him or not, brought a lot of pork money to Alaska - albeit far less than opening ANWR would have brought in - no one was able to name even one important thing, much less three, that Frank did in 22 years. And Lisa has done zip so far in 8 years.
Father-daughter Murkowski have failed in opening ANWR but they succeeded for themselves - big time. Alaska now has a Murkowski in the senior senate seat. Father-daughter Murkowski clearly bested father-son Stevens in that regard. Lisa has learned two crucial things from her father's 22-year experience in the senate. It is far better for her to be in the senior senate seat and to do Stevens-type pork, and it is far better for her to talk ANWR than to actually open it so that Alaskans no longer need her for the pork scraps to keep her in office for the rest of her life. Mark too, also part of a congressional father-son duo, wants to sit in the senate as long as he can - talking ANWR.
It is now January and there is still plenty of time left in 2010 to open ANWR and create the NEW. But the chances of Lisa and Mark supporting my ANWR efforts all stops out, are exceedingly unlikely. Lisa and Mark are really closet greenies that not only believe the global warming-climate change propaganda, they are helping to spread it to the detriment of their state and their country. And judging from her off-shore, off-the-wall directional-drilling ANSOWACPDESA legislation, Lisa no doubt thinks she can keep up Murkowski father-daughter ANWR hustle for another 30 years.