Environmental Wackos Will Have A Fit!

J.J. Jackson* | January 10, 2007

This news will certainly not sit well with anti-private property, anti-energy independence, anti-industry Marxists.

WASHINGTON - President Bush lifted a ban Tuesday on oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, an area known for its endangered whales and the world’s largest run of sockeye salmon.

The action clears the way for the Interior Department to open 5.6 million acres of the fish-rich waters northwest of the Alaska Peninsula as part of its next five-year leasing plan.

“There will be significant opportunities for study and public comment before any oil and gas development could take place,” said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. But he said the bay, as well as expanded drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, “will enhance America’s energy security.”

Interior’s tentative plans call for Bristol Bay leases being made available in 2010 and 2012, pending the environmental reviews.

Kempthorne said Alaska state officials as well as some local and native groups had asked that the ban be ended to spur the local fishing-dominated economy.

Yes, how dare the local people be allowed to determine how best to use their land right? No, that should be the job of bureaucrats in Washington D.C. who think that they can manage “sustained” development.

But did you notice that one thing that sheds doubt on whether we will ever be able to tap the resources of the region? All this is “pending the environmental reviews” which basically means that if we ever see a drop of oil or a whiff of natural gas from this region we will be lucky considering how hard the aforementioned Marxists will claw, scrape and even lie in order to justify denying all permits for the region.

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