Arctic Refuge

More Couric and Palin, on drilling and climate change

More excerpts from the Couric interview with Palin, on subjects including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The trademark borderline-incoherence is in full effect: Here’s the transcript. Here’s the part on climate change, where she tries to back off or at least muddy up her skepticism: Couric: Is it man-made, though in your view? […]

Palin: ‘renewables are not yet proven to be economic nor reliable’

The week before she was chosen as John McCain’s running mate, Alaska governor Sarah Palin was interviewed by CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo about drilling for oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve and elsewhere. In measured, lucid tones, Palin produced a veritable tsunami of non sequiturs, misleading claims, and outright falsehoods. One would need to go […]

McCain’s veep pick talks energy, ANWR, and the improbability of being tapped for VP

During a June 25, 2008, appearance on CNBC’s Kudlow & Company, Sarah Palin said, "Sen. McCain is wrong" on the issue of oil drilling.  She said, "I think he’s going to evolve into eventually supporting ANWR opening also …  I’d like the opportunity to change his mind about ANWR."  She was also asked about the […]

GOP leaders unveil new energy bill that calls for some of everything and lots of drilling

Enviros rally against House Republicans’ new energy bill and drilling plans. Photos: Kate Sheppard House Republicans hosted a press conference on the west steps of the Capitol Building today to tout their new energy legislation, the “American Energy Act” [PDF]. But the 50 caucus members at the gathering were outnumbered by at least 100 protesters, […]

Memo calling for increased offshore drilling and shale development

I have received the text of an Alice-in-Wonderland memo (below) that House Republican leaders will circulate today on legislation they plan to offer. It claims:

To increase the supply American-made energy in environmentally sound ways, the legislation will:

* Open our deep water ocean resources, which will provide an additional 3 million barrels of oil per day;

* Open the Arctic coastal plain, which will provide an additional 1 million barrels of oil per day; and

* Allow development of our nation's shale oil resources, which could provide an additional 2.5 million barrels of oil per day

First off, we opened the vast majority of our deep water ocean resources to drilling two years ago and oil prices doubled.

Second, according to the Bush administration's own energy analysts, ending the federal moratorium on coastal drilling would add perhaps 150,000 barrels of oil per day in the 2020s and have no impact on prices through 2030, unless, as seems likely, California blocks drilling off its coast, in which case it would add well under 100,000 barrels of oil per day in the 2020s.

Third, opening up the "Arctic coastal plain" (GOP-speak for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) would also have no impact on prices, according to the Bush administration's own energy analysts.

Fourth, you can't develop U.S. shale in environmentally sound ways.

Yet Republican leader John Boehner, Republican Whip Roy Blunt, Conference Chairman Adam Putnam, and Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor still have the chutzpah to write:

Conservation good. Drilling stupid

Op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman. Reads like a Grist post. Go figure.

Conservative arguments to the contrary are intellectually bankrupt

Originally posted at the NDN blog.

Of the various false solutions being proposed to the current oil shock perhaps none is more disingenous than the idea that it can be solved by drilling in the Alaskan wilderness and along the Outer Continental Shelf. This is the idea that the right wing media, recently John McCain, and now President Bush have been pushing as a cure-all for soaring oil prices. Since many Democrats oppose this drilling, the next false logical step is to say Democrats are to blame. This was the thrust of President Bush's energy proposal yesterday, one that only highlights the intellectual dishonesty and partisanship of this failed administration.

Is more drilling the answer? No, for three reasons.

McCain says he’s willing to ‘examine’ his stance against drilling in ANWR

The News-Leader in Springfield, Mo. has more on McCain’s energy policy roundtable yesterday. Seems he also indicated that he’s open to reconsidering his stance on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which he has consistently opposed in the past. “I would be more than happy to examine it again,” McCain told the crowd. Guess […]

McCain adviser on oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas

McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin held a press call with reporters tonight after the candidate’s energy speech in Houston. One particularly interesting question came up: A reporter asked why, if McCain thinks people who live in coastal states should decide whether to allow drilling off their shores, that view doesn’t extend to the Arctic National Wildlife […]