Before I ask for your help on this again, I want to say thank you to all of you who made calls on this last year. It appears my end zone dance began to soon.
The last time they tried this was when, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, cynically attached a provision to authorize drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to a Defense Appropriations Bill at the eleventh hour.
The legislative maneuver to add something totally non-germane to Defense on a must-pass bill was terribly disrespectful of our men and women in uniform who needed to have the funding in the bill (and much more I might add, but that is for another post). Thanks to the many calls from Citizen Hunters we called them on it and it got shut down!
Drilling in Alaska will do nothing to help us kick our addiction to oil. We must reduce our consumption if we are to do what is in the best interests of our environment, national security, and our wallets.
Oh, did I mention the pristine Arctic Refuge will not produce any oil for 10 years,and then a few years after that will only reduce gas prices by a penny a gallon. I got that info from the tree-hugging Birkenstock crowd, the U.S. government.
Please call your Senators and tell them to vote against drilling in the Arctic. Visit the Action Center and find ways you can reduce your consumption, write to your legislators and big oil execs to ask for real solutions like getting better gas mileage standards on our cars and using renewable fuels.
Thank you, Flavia, for the excellent shout-out you gave to the Murphy campaign today at the Campaigns & Elections training! The MurphyCorps is trying hard to live up to the Citizen Hunter example of creating positive change and taking action in our community, hence the "Day of Action" we held last week. We'll be taking more action in the future.
Posted by: Steph at June 2, 2006 04:41 PMI just visited their blog about the MurphyCorps' "Day of Action."
http://murphy06.net/blog/2006/05/murphycorps-day-of-action.html
Truly a nice contrast to their opponent hanging out with "W" and their big fundraisers.
Posted by: D.J. at June 2, 2006 05:11 PMMental image of Flavia doing an end zone dance.
Okay, back to business:
"Addicted to oil," Dr. Bush pronounced.
"What should we do doctor?" asked Nurse Stevens.
"I recommend 6,000 drilling permits in Utah, and a dose of ANWR, stat!" Dr. Bush replied.
"But doctor, we're giving out more permits than the oil companies can keep up with. We've done that already in Utah and they've only drilled 2,700 new wells!"
"Then drill faster!" growled the Doctor.
"But sir, how does that end the addiction?" asked the nurse.
"Who said anything about ending it!" cried the Doctor.
Unfortunately this is what we're doing. Instead of ending an addiction by pursuing alternative forms of fuel and asking Americans to conserve (don't they want us all to be conserve-atives?), GWB and the Republican - controlled Congress are feeding not one, but two addictions: our addiction to oil and the big oil companies addiction to profits.
Posted by: BJG at June 2, 2006 09:12 PM"Drive 55 and save a Marine"
An auto gets 21% better fuel mileage at 55 mph vs. 65. Can we get nowhere any faster? 80 percent of all the crude oil consumed in this country goes into automobiles and we consume 25% of the world's supply, you might even say we are responsible for 25% or more of global warming. Congress mandated a 1.8 mpg increase in light trucks and SUV's by the year 2011. The automobile is a dinosaur and should be abolished; John Kerry's idea that gasoline should be taxed to the point where taking the train or bus would be attractive was ridiculed, in reality as China and India consume more, we will pay more, but not in a tax that will build infrastructure. Our sense of community has diminished to the point that people drive in residential areas as if they are afraid to say hello and are willing to run over children to prove it. Opening ANWR will only appease the oil industry, delay the inevitable and cause more of our wealth to maintain our huge highway budgets. Rather than build in and restore the inner cities, we are doing what?
"The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society." RFK 1966
Posted by: Mike Collins at June 4, 2006 09:20 AMIf a hybrid is good enough for Larry David it's good enough for me. Excited to see the Al Gore movie, thanks for the tip. Does he talk about the Arctic Refuge in the movie? You're the bomb Flavia keep up the good work. I'm out.
Posted by: Elizabeth at June 4, 2006 12:04 PMLet's talk about oil for a few minutes. According to a Time Magazine article, in the last year, Honda Hybrid sales have dropped by 63% while Cadillac Escalade sales have increased by 132%. Clearly all the complaints about high gas prices are lipservice, like the man complaining about noise pollution as he installs the sub-woofer into his car. I don't think we should be drilling Alaska, though Flavia, no one knows exactly how much oil we will find until we drill. The ecological effects would be devistating and that is certainly a risk I would rather not take. But if we are going to wage war on the Oil lobby, why not just go full force and give them a legislative wedgie from which they certainly would not recover? How about a law passed swiftly through the House and Senate (a sign that our elected officials care about our gripes over high gas prices) that requires all cars manufactured and sold in the US to be equiped with Hybrid technology by 2012, and gives tax breaks to those companies who comply before that date. Think we can do that?
Posted by: Myles Aion at June 5, 2006 08:57 AMThe only helps illustrate the necessity of "throwing the bums out." Unfortunately in Pennsylvania, there are very few districts in play this fall. The Republican controlled state legislature passed the "Incumbent Protection Act" a few years back under the guise of redistricting. I live in an overwhemlingly Republican district, where a Democrat doesn't have a chance of winning. As far as the Senate goes, at least we can kick Santorum out this fall, so he can rejoin his family in Virginia and collect big bucks as a lobbyist.
Posted by: Steve at June 5, 2006 04:10 PM