U.S. House Drops Alaska Oil Drilling Plan

The Alaskan wildlife refuge ANWR has won a reprieve from drilling. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to abandon plans to open up the protected land to drilling for oil in an effort to cut U.S. spending. This is a temporary victory for environmentalists who argue that drilling will pose a risk to natural wilderness and animals who call ANWR home. Oil companies estimate that there are close to 16 billion barrels of oil under the tundra, enough to replace 30 years worth of imports from the Middle East.



Well this is a temporary victory for the environmentalists but I doubt it will last as long as Bush is in the Whitehouse. Although I know we need another supply of oil I can’t condone drilling for oil where ever we feel like drilling. The ANWR refuge was set aside as a natural refuge for a reason and that was to preserve the wilderness. If we start invading protected lands as soon as we feel we need them then when will it stop, when everything is gone? I think that all protected lands should stay that way protected unless we want to live in a world that is destroyed just because we need the resources to fuel our own greed.

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[edit on 11/12/05 by FredT]

This is nothing more that a political move to win votes for next mid term elections, see things are not looking good for the majority Republican house so they have to find a way to hold to those seat at all cost.

Occurs after that is open again for the profits, this is just temporary.

Huh, I thought they would have pushed this harder now, before they lose any more support , any more seats, and there fore any more votes in favor of this measure???

Of course the price of gas has gone down a bit recently ( only $2.23 here in the last few days).......so maybe they think there's just not enough public 'panic' right now to lend the right support......but wait till the hoopla over the oil companies' huge profits blow over, and gas prices rise again........

The problems is that this is going to benefit the oil barons not the prices at the pump or us the common gas consumer.

With the now inquiry in their profits for this year nobody wants to add any more wood to the fire and the mistrust that the American people have now on the oil companies.

Is a misconception about that, this is all for profits.

I love it when these articles leave out details. For instance, what does this mean?

The Republican lawmakers were concerned the provision permitting oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) would jeopardize approval of a larger budget bill.

Thank goodness the bill is not dead quite yet..

But the setback doesn't mean the Alaska proposal is dead; the Senate has included the provision in its budget bill.

Negotiators from the Senate and House will now meet to hammer out an agreement.

The overall budget bill aims to cut close to $54 billion US in spending, including provisions to curb Medicaid's growth, cut student loan subsidies and tightening rules for food stamp eligibility.

What costs does the gov't have to bear? I thought the oil companies paid for all costs in return for the right to gouge us at the pump?