Free Republic

Sen. Maria Cantwell, a longtime opponent of oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, has helped defeat the latest Republican plan to open up the refuge for new energy exploration. The Washington Democrat and member of the Senate Finance Committee raised objections Tuesday when Utah GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch offered a plan that would have allowed drilling rigs into the refuge and protected waters off the coast of Florida and southern California “We all know that gas prices going up are a very big challenge to us and we need to find alternatives to foreign oil,” Cantwell said. “But...

Energy Policy: The same administration that says we can and should get oil from the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska is blocking a bridge needed to get it to market on environmental grounds. In his May 14 weekly radio address, President Obama called for annual lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA), not necessarily out of any conviction that increased domestic energy supply is good for prices and national security, but basically to perpetuate the myth that the oil companies refuse to drill in leased or leasable areas. While he restricts oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and...

Televised congressional hearings often serve as a platform for members of Congress to berate, bloviate and showboat for the cameras, but at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday, historian Douglas Brinkley wouldn't stand for it. The topic at hand was drilling in the the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The trouble began when Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young misstated Brinkley's name after referring to the hearing as "an exercise in futility." In a certain breach of protocol, Brinkley cut him off.

Election '12: A governor of an energy-rich state would use the "energy of the past" to create the jobs of the present rather than placing bets on solar panels and tilting at windmills. During the GOP presidential debates, Gov. Rick Perry was criticized for taking all the credit for Texas' job-creation record since he was not responsible for the oil and gas in the ground that created many of those jobs. True enough. But like Sarah Palin, the governor of another energy-rich state, he did foster a business-friendly climate as free from NIMBY regulations as possible, making the extraction of...

Gov. Rick Perry is set to unveil an energy plan for the country today that he says will unleash 1.2 million jobs while unlocking America’s oil, gas and coal resources. “We’re sitting on a treasure trove of energy in this country,” Perry said on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report” Thursday night. “There’s 300 years worth of reserves underneath the land of America, and that’s how we’re going to get America working again.” Perry is set to reveal more details during an 11:30 a.m. Central event at a steel plant in West Mifflin, Pa. But the Republican presidential hopeful has already made...

Rick Rydell (born Rick Green) is the #1 Radio show host in Alaska; project manager; writer, bear hunter and arm wrestling champion. Named Alaska´s GOP man of the year (2004) Rydell is possibly the only media figure who can not only boast that he knows Sarah Palin and has spoken with her for hours at a time as well as being able to not take her calls to his morning program on KENI when he has other topics to cover. Rydell offered the following comments on Alaska’s current energy situation in a recent interview. Rydell’s estimate of the recoverable oil...

The next presidential election is 15 months away, and 2012 (like most elections) will come down to the mundane, everyday, bread-and-butter issue of economics. I submit that the biggest economic indicator is the price of gasoline. Back in 2006, Nancy Pelosi railed about high gasoline prices, asserting that they were the result of “Big Oil” running the government. Barack Obama picked up on this theme during his 2008 presidential bid, and said he "felt the pain" of those who had to pay exorbitant gas prices.

The Alaska governor’s office, which has long griped that the Obama administration has blocked oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, is aggressively pushing a plan to drill off a pristine strip of state-owned coast threading between the federally protected lands and waters. Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell, a Republican, announced the plan on Thursday by teleconference at a Washington press conference held in conjunction with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It would allow the state to start allowing drilling in the Beaufort Sea, up to three miles off the federally protected regions of ANWR and the...

Sen. Mark Begich is turning a deaf ear to Sarah Palin's demand that he make drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a condition for his vote to approve raising the nation's debt ceiling. "She's not really on my radar screen to take advice from," the Alaska Democrat told reporters Tuesday. "Let me put it this way. It's always interesting to read what she has to say," Begich said. But, he added, "Someone who quit Alaska is not someone I look for to get Alaska policy decisions on." In discussing the debt ceiling vote on "Fox News Sunday," Palin said:...

Energy: Lack of oil volume due to administration bans on new Alaskan drilling may force the shutdown of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, denying us even the tens of billions of barrels left in already developed fields. The Trans-Alaskan pipeline is dying, another casualty of the Obama administration's war on domestic fossil fuel energy and its deliberate effort to drive up energy prices to make so-called "green" energy alternatives more attractive. It was built to handle the oil produced on Alaska's North Slope at Prudhoe Bay and was a marvel of American engineering and exceptionalism. When oil exploration began in Prudhoe Bay,...

Many liberals in the media are expressing shock over Obama’s apparent willingness to increase oil production.  We all know that he is full of …, I mean ethanol, and they do too. Those of you who were befuddled at the news that Obama will ‘expand drilling’ in Alaska are not missing anything.  Obama has pulled this political chicanery a number of times.  Whenever a specific proposal that he so adamantly opposes becomes too popular to ignore, he announces his support for it by promising to implement inconsequential reforms.  To that end, he declared during his Saturday radio address that he...

Energy: As the House passes a bill to open up offshore drilling, the Senate holds another show trial of oil executives showing why people blame them, not the administration, for high gas prices. Last week they fought back. Summoned for what Sen. Orrin Hatch labeled a dog-and-pony show, executives of Exxon Mobil, Shell, ConocoPhillips, BP America and Chevron appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday and, in often-heated exchanges, indicated their days as whipping boys are over. The hearing was called ostensibly to support the Democrats' Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act, a bill with no chance of passage....

Why would President Obama want high gas prices? It's a matter of ideology for him. He thinks it's good for the environment for gas prices to be high. The higher gas prices are, the less you will drive. Also, higher gas prices make his beloved "alternative fuels" more competitive. That is because these alternative fuels are inherently more expensive, and so can't compete with cheaper gas. Note this is not a prescription for easing the financial burden on working people. High gas prices make it more likely you will buy expensive "alternative fuels." But either way, your wallet will still...

Leadership: Making jokes about remembering what it was like to pump gas or speaking at a foreign-owned wind turbine plant does not ease the pain at the pump that has been orchestrated by the White House. President Obama found time on the eve of a possible government shutdown to dine with the Rev. Al Sharpton, address his National Action Network Annual Gala and make quips about an energy crisis America finds increasingly unfunny. "I don't pump gas now, but I remember what it was like pumping gas. ... I remember the end of the month (paying bills) .. . I...

Where do I get my energy? None of the holes I’ve dug in the backyard have produced anything, so I buy gasoline for my car from federally-regulated oil companies and my natural gas and electricity from publicly-regulated monopoly utilities. And sometimes I swing by Starbucks and pick up a shot of personal get-up-and-go. Last week President Barack Obama addressed energy issues in front of students at Georgetown University, releasing a new Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future. Our fearless leader intends to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Moreover, Mr. Obama told students, “I want to announce a new goal...

Not yet a year after the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, Republicans are renewing efforts to drill for oil and gas in a fiercely contested Alaskan wildlife refuge. Moving one day after President Barack Obama's unveiled a plan to cut U.S. oil imports by a third over 10 years, Republicans will unveil a bill to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The bill would also force the Interior Department to hold lease sales for offshore areas, a Republican aide said.

Senate Republicans are making another bid to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling — but this time they are trying to sweeten the offer by dedicating a quarter of the revenue to renewable energy projects. The ANWR drilling plan is embedded in energy legislation unveiled Thursday by more than two dozen lawmakers, led by David Vitter of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas. The bill also would restrict environmental groups from filing legal challenges to energy projects, force the government to approve a pipeline that would bring Canadian oil sands crude to the Gulf Coast and clear the...

Ten years ago, President George W. Bush presented his energy plan to the United States Congress. The plan included $33.5 billion in tax incentives for energy companies to expand drilling for oil, natural gas and mining for coal. The plan also expanded energy conservation measures. One of the key components of the energy plan was expanding domestic oil drilling so that the United States could finally wean itself off foreign oil. The United States House of Representatives embraced the plan, which called for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Unfortunately for Americans, the legislation then went to the...

With the price of gas up 39 cents at the pump in a month and heading higher amid turmoil in much of the Middle East, Americans wonder why the U.S. isn't doing more to exploit its own oil resources. They favor drilling in territorial waters, 67%-29%, according to a new IBD/TIPP poll. That is up from 61%-30% from last May and 64%-25% when Republicans touted drilling in the 2008 election as oil topped $147 a barrel. There's also been a solid shift toward drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, with support at 54%-40%. That's up from 49%-43% last year.

Energy Policy: As the White House goes to court to defend its self-imposed drilling moratorium, it floats the idea of tapping our strategic petroleum reserve to lower rising prices. How about the oil offshore and in Alaska? Listening to mainstream punditry, you'd think $4 gas is due solely to Mideast unrest and global demand. Those are factors, but so are our self-imposed restrictions on supply. The administration at least acknowledges that the law of supply and demand exists, with White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley telling NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that the White House is considering tapping into...

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your LOVE for all the saints, Eph 1:15 All the stops are being pulled to avoid the Obama Depression settling into the discussion. This economic disaster would be tragic if it wasn’t intentional. From the moment he and his radical buddies took over the helm of this great ship of Freedom they have pushed to destroy the capitalistic model and replace it with a communist dictatorship and now we have the results. As gas becomes a scarcer and scarcer commodity everyone will be punished equally...

We are living lives of self-imposed impoverishment. it will reach $130bbl, there is little reason to expect gasoline prices to do anything other than climb higher in the near future.One of the problems we face right now is the uncertainty in Libya, an OPEC nation that has cut its normal daily output of 1.6 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) to just over 700,000, amid the political tensions surrounding Muammar Gaddafi. What this means for humanity as a whole is that there is now less oil on the worldÂ’s market to meet the demand around the globe. What this...

Complete title: Interior Secretary Says White House Opposes Drilling in Arctic Because It Will Not Lead to Energy Independence VIDEO 2:09 minutes (CNSNews.com) - When asked why the Obama administration opposes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) given the rising cost of gasoline, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told CNSNews.com that the “drill, baby, drill program” is not going to lead the United States to energy independence. “We don’t believe that you need to drill everywhere and we don’t believe that the 'drill, baby, drill' program is the way that’s going to get us to the energy independence that...

An East Coast congressman has reintroduced perennial legislation to designate the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., has offered the Arctic Wilderness Act in every Congress since 2001. The last time he introduced the bill, in January 2009, it died in committee. After Republicans took control the House of Representatives on Jan. 5, Markey rose to become the top-ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, a Democrat, quickly blasted Markey’s wilderness bill. “I’ll make Congressman Markey a deal. I won’t legislate for Massachusetts and he stays out...

Because of the Obama administration's reaction to the BP oil spill there could be no new leases on oil drilling in the Gulf in 2011. That could lead to higher gas prices.

If there were any doubts about President Barack Obama's opinion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the White House dispelled them Monday, on the 50th anniversary of one of the country's most powerful symbols of wilderness. "As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, we remember that this breathtaking terrain holds great significance to our nation," the president wrote in a proclamation. "Stretching from the plains of the Arctic Sea to the soaring mountains of the Brooks Range and lush boreal forests of the Alaskan lowlands, the rugged splendor of the Arctic Refuge...

Alaska is considering mounting a legal challenge to President Obama's plan to set aside 187,000 square miles in the state as a "critical habitat" for polar bears, a move that could add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas. Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell questioned the decision, saying the designation was not supported by sound science or good economic analysis. "This additional layer of regulatory burden will not only slow job creation and economic growth here and for our nation, but will also slow oil and gas exploration efforts," he said in a written statement on Wednesday. "We are...

I was not sure about Palin because the MSM has damaged her and I just was not sure. I am a registered Independent voter that now sees through the media spin and hate towards Palin. Palin was Alinskied by Obama with the MSM's help. I really think once more Independent voters see her intelligence and experience with Alaska they will clearly see a historic vote for two women in 2012 Palin/Bachmann ALso: I am very ticked off at the liberals utter lies and spin on ANWR. NO animal would be harmed if we drilled and or expanded our resources! THEY...

Segment 1: ANWR: A National Security Need? Governor and Todd Palin take Greta on a tour of ANWR, Prudhoe Bay, make a case for drill, baby, drill: Segment 2: A Story of Survival Sole resident in camp outside ANWR tells Greta how she lives on alternative fuel: Segment 3: 'On the Record' in Valdez Greta and the Governor look on their visit to the pipeline in Valdez:

Sarah and Todd Palin take Greta on a tour of ANWR, Prudhoe Bay, make a case for drill, baby, drill & A preview of Part 3 'On the Record's ' special series in Alaska: Greta tours Valdez

Energy Policy: President Obama says the oil disaster proves the need to get off fossil fuels. But before we save the planet, let's save the Gulf and stop exploiting crises to deny America the energy it needs. Saving the planet is nice, but just how do we plug the hole again? With an abundance of hand gestures, the president didn't really say in his speech Tuesday night. He did say fossil fuels were bad and green energy is good, but the people of the Gulf states don't need wind turbines right now. Contrary to Obama's assertions, our "addiction" to foreign...

The Economy: As if the latest measly numbers on our jobless recovery weren't bad enough, along comes the administration to pile disaster upon disaster by slapping a six-month ban on deep-water drilling. When President Obama visited Louisiana on May 1, he talked about the possibility that the oil gushing from BP's Deepwater Horizon well could "jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who call this place home." Now the administration's response could jeopardize the livelihoods of tens of thousands more. In a letter sent to Obama on Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal challenged the president's decision to suspend deepwater drilling...

There are several masters being served here by the Obama regime, and it’s disciples. First, there is the money, lots of money. The Obama regime, using the tenets of radical environmentalism, .which is based on a hoax, (global warming) to set up a cap and trade system that will see Obama, Al Gore, and many others rake in tens of trillions of dollars from people who are forced to purchase “carbon credits” through the Chicago Climate Exchange, which was created by Obama, and has among others, Al Gore, and elements of Goldman Sachs as partners. You can read more on...

Extreme Enviros: Drill, Baby, Drill in ANWR – Now Do You Get It? Today at 2:17pm This is a message to extreme “environmentalists” who hypocritically protest domestic energy production offshore and onshore. There is nothing “clean and green” about your efforts. Look, here’s the deal: when you lock up our land, you outsource jobs and opportunity away from America and into foreign countries that are making us beholden to them. Some of these countries don’t like America. Some of these countries don’t care for planet earth like we do – as evidenced by our stricter environmental standards. With your nonsensical...

Energy Policy: To save the environment, a senator from Pennsylvania wants to shut off a major source of natural gas. Weren't the roads to the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon disasters paved with equally good intentions? Environmentalism did not cause the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, but it did help make it possible, just as 1989's Exxon Valdez disaster, which the Gulf Oil spill has now eclipsed, was also ironically made possible by a desire to protect the environment. The original plan when oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's North Slope was to build a pipeline directly to the...

Nearly 40 days in, our President finally addressed the American people’s growing concerns about the Gulf Coast oil spill. Listening to today’s press conference, you’d think the administration has been working with single-minded focus on the Gulf gusher since the start of the disaster. In reality, their focus has been anything but singular to help solve this monumental problem. If the President really was fully focused on this issue from day one, why did it take nine whole days before the administration asked the Department of Defense for help in deploying equipment needed for the extreme depth spill site? Why...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The fight over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge heated up Tuesday over the possibility that a new management plan could put the refuge and its billions of barrels of crude off-limits for good. At issue is the refuge's 1.5-million-acre coastal plain and whether an updated plan would designate the oil-rich area as wilderness. The coastal plain — believed to contain an estimated 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil — has been a battleground for decades between environmentalists who don't want drilling and oil companies and Alaska officials that see a large, untapped resource that...

Barack Obama made a big fuss over his plan to open more U.S. acreage to exploratory oil and gas drilling. But wildcatters aren't overly excited about the prospects. Though the plan added acreage in Alaska for possible leasing, some choice sites there were yanked. Drillers still have to wait for environmental studies before a lease sale may be held. Even then, they'd need to do seismic surveys and get federal air permits before touching drill bit to earth. Expect environmentalists' lawsuits, too. The President asserted that "drilling alone cannot come close to meeting our long-term energy needs." Really? A study...

Energy: As the administration loosens restrictions on domestic energy development and offshore drilling, a reviled company develops technology to unlock America's vast shale resources. Drill, baby, drill. We have been among President Obama's harshest critics when it comes to the administration's overly restrictive energy policy, so we were pleasantly surprised to see him announce on Wednesday some light at the end of the pipeline. Some light, for many restrictions will remain in an energy policy best termed schizophrenic. Speaking at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., Obama announced the welcome news that his administration will let lease sales go...

Energy: A new study shows that our reluctance to develop domestic energy will cost the beleaguered U.S. economy trillions in opportunity costs, reduce our gross domestic product and increase our trade deficit. From trying to stimulate jobs in nonexistent ZIP codes at great expense to worshiping the false gods of climate change, our biggest deficit these days may be in the area of common sense. A new study shows that many of our wounds are self-inflicted as we forgo the wealth and jobs to be found in our waters and under our feet. The study by Science Applications International Corp....

How much money is the US losing by maintaining its de facto drilling ban on the coasts and the explicit ban on drilling in ANWR? The SAIC Corporation studied the question, in part funded by the oil industry, and claims that the American economy will lose over $2.3 trillion dollars in opportunity costs over the next two decades: Restrictions on oil and gas drilling will cost the U.S. economy $2.36 trillion through 2029, according to a study requested by state utility regulators and paid for in part by industry-sponsored groups. Drilling restrictions in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off...

The Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is a prized jewel of our national ecosystem. Congress should work to preserve this environmental sanctuary. I remain strongly opposed to drilling for oil in the ANWR. The House budget does not provide funding for Alaskan oil drilling. As we move toward budget reconciliation, I will work with my colleagues to keep the Alaskan wilderness pristine and untouched.

Energy: The government says wind power could supply the eastern half of the U.S. with a fifth of its electricity by 2024. Just don't try building wind farms where someone might see them. A claim is contained in a new study released by the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and technically it might be true. But we've heard these overblown predictions before, and experience around the world with heavily subsidized alternative energy has not worked out well. The area in question, called the Eastern Interconnection, is a grid extending roughly from the western borders of the Plains states through...

The declining flow of oil from Alaska's North Slope is creating anxiety among executives who run the trans-Alaska pipeline. Within a matter of years, they say, they will need to take costly steps to preserve the life of the 800-mile-long line. If they aren't successful, ice and wax could become a serious problem for the pipeline, increasing the risk of corrosion and spills. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.'s sense of urgency isn't because the North Slope is running out of oil. The Slope's producing oil fields still contain enough oil to supply the pipeline for at least several more decades. Many...

Energy: An amazing number of oil finds have been made this year, including the biggest in California in 35 years. If the world is running out of oil, why do we keep finding more of it? The mantra of the anti-drilling crowd has been that oil companies like to sit on their leases and the oil in the ground, hoping to drive up the price. They should use the leases they have or lose them, these critics say. They also like to add that the world is running out of oil so it doesn't matter anyway. Occidental Petroleum hasn't been...

Energy: An amazing number of oil finds have been made this year, including the biggest in California in 35 years. If the world is running out of oil, why do we keep finding more of it? The mantra of the anti-drilling crowd has been that oil companies like to sit on their leases and the oil in the ground, hoping to drive up the price. They should use the leases they have or lose them, these critics say. They also like to add that the world is running out of oil so it doesn't matter anyway. Occidental Petroleum hasn't been...

Energy Policy: Ignoring peak-oil Cassandras, BP has made another giant oil find in the Gulf of Mexico. We're not running out of oil. Our government just doesn't want us to look for it.The world is running out of oil and good riddance. That's the environmentalists' mantra. But since the first well was drilled near Titusville, Pa., 150 years ago, the prophecy has gone unfulfilled. Trouble is, those darn greedy oil companies keep finding the stuff. Oil has been produced in the Gulf of Mexico since the first well was drilled by Kerr-McGee Corp. in 1947. Some of the wells are...

Cap-And-Trade: The administration likes to defend bad policies with analogies to the post office. New studies from a business group and the administration itself confirm that cap-and-trade belongs in the dead-letter bin.Along with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Rep. Ed Markey likens the cost of the Waxman-Markey cap-and trade bill to "about a postage stamp a day," based on estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office and the EPA. But as we and others have shown, they arrive at this magical number in part by ignoring the hit on gross domestic product and employment that will occur. As Garret Vaughan, economist...

Stimulus: Brazil, a leader in the use of biofuels such as ethanol and in the face of falling oil prices, still plans to spend huge sums to expand its offshore oil resources. Drilling rigs are infrastructure too.With oil prices scraping the bottom of the barrel, pun intended, there wouldn't appear to be much incentive to pursue the development of new oil resources. And in tough economic times worldwide, the necessary investment required would appear to be prohibitive. As the U.S. seeks to get its economy going by building roads, bridges and bicycle paths, Brazil has decided to create jobs and...

Energy Policy: The chief economist of the International Energy Agency says the world is running out of oil. We've been told that for the last 150 years. The only thing we're running out of is the will to drill.Ever since the first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pa., in 1859, experts have been predicting we would soon run out of oil. The latest is Dr. Fatih Birol, chief economist for the International Energy Agency in Paris, whose job it is to assess future energy supplies by OECD countries. In an interview with the Independent, Dr. Birol says that based...