So the Obama administration is going to allow the Alaska wilderness to be destroyed.

[MadHound]

"The president’s preoccupation with the Arctic proposal, even as the nation was still reeling from the BP spill, was the first hint that Shell’s audacious plan to drill in waters previously considered untouchable had gone from improbable to inevitable.

Barring a successful last-minute legal challenge by environmental groups, Shell will begin drilling test wells off the coast of northern Alaska in July, opening a new frontier in domestic oil exploration and accelerating a global rush to tap the untold resources beneath the frozen ocean. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/science/earth/shell-arctic-ocean-drilling-stands-to-open-new-oil-frontier.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1337945211-pWSJ+SK3KCVP81hi2MYSVQ

Ready to risk major damage to the environment for what? The entire amount of oil located under Alaska's soil water amounts to (are you ready for this) approximately 45 days worth of oil for the US. We use 20 million barrels of oil each and every day, and the Alaskan reserves amount to approximately 896 million barrels. Dismal math, especially in light of Obama's promise to transform our energy structure.

This isn't a case of Congress playing tricks, this is simply a case of political expediency on the party of Obama. He is willing to sacrifice pristine Alaskan wilderness so that he can say that he is willing to "drill baby, drill."

When we have the inevitable environmental catastrophe, remember why we're there. Political expediency, and 45 days worth of oil.

[progressoid]

1. Drill Potus, drill.

[Baclava]

2. Can't we just seize the Saudi's oilfields instead?

Billions of dollars in weapons we waste blowing up mud huts when much juicier targets are available.

We can share the oil with NATO when we take them over, nobody should mind.

[bighart]

3. Wow

Crazy

[bahrbearian]

4. I'm sure they will have an Environmental Impact Statement

showing that they can stop and control any leaks right. Ones like they had for Deep Water Horizon.

[Autumn]

5. Should be easy enough to get through the ice in the winter or I'm sure

any oil spilled will just dissipate. Just like it did in the Gulf. Celebrate , this is a real accomplishment!

[avaistheone1]

6. I just heard about this yesterday and I am disgusted. I guess Obama wants to be an Oil President as

well as a War President.

[bhikkhu]

24. For better or worse, oil is a big part of the US economy

...and the economy is "job #1", the same as for any other president.

[SnoopDog]

26. Without a home, without an environment conducive to life...

..it is like your health....

Without your health, without your home and environment to live in - - - you have nothing...

And nothing else is more important...

[bhikkhu]

30. Oil consumption is the primary problem. If this wasn't enough -

why should drilling in the arctic ocean make a difference to anyone?

btw - I gave up driving in 2008, so with a somewhat clean conscience I can point out the hypocrisy of protesting drilling with one's mouth, while demanding drilling by one's lifestyle.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. Obama fan. Not happy....

[JDPriestly]

8. This news on top of the news that Obama is negotiating another trade treaty

so secret not even most of Congress is allowed to know the terms, but so public that big business is kept abreast on the details.

Let's face it. We are voting for this guy not because he is doing a great job but because the alternative is worse.

We have to elect him. Once he is elected, we have to organize.

[MadHound]

9. The trouble is, once he is elected, he won't care.

He'll be home free in a second term. That's why pressure needs to be brought to bear now, when our opinion still matters to him. After he wins the election it will be too late.

[Oilwellian]

14. If our opinions mattered...

he wouldn't do this. Disgusting.

[Gregorian]

10. Just who is responsible. The monster needs to be fed.

[Dragonfli]

11. You need to stop being a "hater" and a "basher" and whatever other words my 11 yr old niece

decides are adult words in relation to politicians.

Your problem is one of vocabulary, if you make an attempt to reduce the size and quantity of words and replace them with things like "hater" you will be able to understand politics and why disagreeing with any policy put forth by our team is just a way of bashing a president that is too good for you.

He needs to keep his citizens happy no matter what the damage to the environment and the human livestock.

You voters think it is all about you! how selfish, it is about elections, cash and keeping the minority of real and true citizens like corporations profitable. As a citizen you are ONE. As a corporate citizen Exxon and others are legion, therefore they are the ones that count.

You need to get on the right team and help promote these life saving policies and get your head out of the sand that makes you think individuals are more important than money.

Become an adult, just use the teenage words and cheer policies like these on so that the important people can do well.
You need to stop being so selfishly people and living things oriented and recognize that money is the only pure form of being.


HATER!!!

[dionysus]

40. the bitterness is delicious...

[XemaSab]

12. Color me surprised

[Maven]

13. 45 days for us, hundreds of millions for them

Therein lies the answer.

[KG]

15. I'm sure I'll soon be told this isn't true, and even if it was, it is somehow a good thing...

[Kdillard]

16. Very disappointing.

[TheKentuckian]

17. Stupid and feckless beyond suicidal levels

Planet murdering fuckwits!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

18. What about alternative energy not oil?

[woo me with science]

19. Every day.

Every day there is a new one.


Get the goddamned corporate money out of our government and our party. Occupy.

[SnoopDog]

20. Let's see.... 'clean coal', drill-baby-drill, let's license some more nukes...

..and now, let's destroy the Arctic *and* let's put a pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico...

They and Obama are destroying our only home...

But, hey, he is a Democrat so everything is ok....right?

[Dragonfli]

22. It must somehow make it different, under a Repug we would not feel so lonely opposing it

There are so many in the party now that couldn't care less about what our politicians do, they only care what jersey they wear while doing it.

Our party has become shallow and a supporter of all things that we once opposed, opposition to evil things that once made us better than Republicans.
I hope it was worth it just to get some of the Republican cast offs from the last GOP purge.

[bhikkhu]

21. Exploration in the Beaufort Sea has been given the go-ahead

here: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2012/03/bsee-20120329.html

but any wells must be approved and permitted individually. Its far from a free-for-all, and its away from land wilderness areas.

[FSogol]

25. Hey, don't let some facts get in the way of this crew's

Obama bashing.

[Blue_In_AK]

28. It may be away from land wilderness areas,

but it's not away from the marine mammals and fish that keep the Alaska Native villagers up there alive. If you don't care about the ecosystem, you should at least care about the people.

[MadHound]

32. From the NYT article,

It looks like Shell will begin drilling test wells in July, with others to follow after.

You crack the nut on this one, and the entire shell comes away. It may not be a free for all now, but it soon will be. And even if it isn't, one blown well, one leak, and poof, you've ruined an entire wilderness area.

[uponit7771]

44. Great, great...the OP sophistry is established by the phrase "it will be"...

...there's a reason why some of us never take these hyperbolic crtiscisms of Obama seriously

[MadHound]

45. Umm hmm, sophistry when Obama is in the big seat,

Valid criticism when it was Bush in the big seat.

Hypocrite much?

You know as well as I do the dangers of opening up the Arctic to drilling, you argued them frequently enough when Bush was trying to establish drilling in Alaska.

But when it is a Dem in office, suddenly you're sounding like the National Petroleum Council.

It really is hard to take people like you seriously.

[Karmadillo]

23. Another Republican issue stolen! What a master of the craft!!!!! Go Team!!!!

[Blue_In_AK]

27. Why, yes. Yes, he is.

And a lot of us aren't too happy about it. It's not a matter of if but when there will be a disaster up there. A blow-out under ice will be impossible to contain. Not to mention the fact that the nearest Coast Guard station is 1,000 miles away in Kodiak.

This is really a stupid idea.



And, of course, this is not even to mention the thousands of tons of Japanese debris that is already showing up on our coastlines with no federal plan in place to cope with it. It makes me sick.

[Blue_In_AK]

29. We follow this issue closely up here, of course.

Here are the links to all Anchorage Daily News articles that show up under a search for "Beaufort Shell." http://www.adn.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=Shell+Beaufort&submit=find+%BB


There is really very little benefit for anyone in this deal except for Shell Oil executives and a few out-of-state oil workers. From what I understand, Alaska doesn't even get any royalties from offshore drilling, despite the fact that we take all the very significant risk if there is an accident. At least with the onshore wells, the state owns the resource so the oil companies have to pay the state to extract it. That's how we have a permanent fund and get dividends every year. (We have no private ownership of mineral rights up here, at least as to oil, so oil royalties go directly to the state. The dividends are paid to every Alaskan from the profit on the investments. It's very socialist.)

Oil politics is complicated in Alaska, but a lot of us would be happy if Big Oil would just leave us alone entirely. I'd give up my permanent fund in a heartbeat to have all those Texas and Oklahoma oil men hit the road. I remember what it was like here before they came.

[DLevine]

31. Depressing. n/t

[RBInMaine]

33. Did Obama run over your dog and not know it? Christ, get over it.

[MadHound]

34. No, but he is opening up sensitive environmental areas to destruction

Not to mention that he is threatening part of my water supply. Sorry, but I don't "get over" massive environmental damage.

[lunatica]

35. I hope this fails miserably

I pray that the Arctic turns out to be too ferocious for the oil companies to exploit.

[tawadi]

37. I wouldn't count on that

Mankind seems to have a way of raping and pillaging the earth just fine.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

36. Bush III strikes again!

[flvegan]

38. Anyone surprised at this needs to log off the internet before their stupidity does real life damage.

[woo me with science]

39. +100000

Seriously. It's time to stop pretending already.

[Skip Intro]

41. Why no MSM reports on this?

Because MSNBC and Dem-friendly media don't want to be honestly critical of Obama in an election cycle, and the right-leaning MSM want what Obama is doing here.

What a sick damn state of affairs - each side keeps its heroes while the planet is further raped.

Just, what do you do, you know? What do you do???

[cliffordu]

42. Keep driving cars and complaining as loudly as you can.

Hypocrisy is where we find it.

[MadHound]

46. First of all, you assume a lot about what I drive, and how I live my life.

I can guarantee you that I have a much smaller energy footprint than you.

But all of that is beside the point. The fact of the matter is that this president promised to be the green energy president, yet here he is, opening up Alaska to drilling. Yes, he has pushed some green renewables, more than Bush or Clinton did, but given the severity of the problem, he could, and should be doing much more.

This opening up of Alaska is noting but a purely political move, designed to win votes and silence RW critics. And while Obama may gain a few votes for this move, it is Alaska's environment that will be paying the price.

[LiberalAndProud]

43. Are any environmental groups challenging this?

Barring a successful last-minute legal challenge by environmental groups

[MoonRiver]

47. November 6, 2012

Don't think I have any plans for the day.

[Honeycombe8]

48. I am EXTREMELY disappointed in this development, if it's true.

This is one of those things that's a non-compromise issue. Pretty much everything has a compromise factor to it, particularly healthcare reform. Even some environmental issues have something about them that allows for compromise. But THIS is not one of those things. You either allow drilling there, or you don't.