This morning President Donald Trump just told Fox & Friends that he should go down as the “greatest environmental president” in history for signing the Great American Outdoors Act but he then proudly listed an array of rollbacks and attacks on environmental protections. If anything the President was understated in his damaging policies to the environment, including his opposition to efforts to deal with greenhouse gases and climate change. What made this statement the most glaring for many of us is that this morning the Wall Street Journal disclosed that Trump is likely to open up the pristine Arctic refuge area to drilling — an act of breathtaking loss to our natural park and wild refuge areas.
For thirty years, Republican and Democratic presidents have refused continual demands of oil companies to develop this pristine area. Three decades of protection could now be lost in a rush to open up the wildness area before the election. That would make it difficult for a possible Biden Administration to stop this damage.President Trump acknowledged that he is moving to open up the 19-million-acre wilderness to drilling for the first time and notably tied that decision (and other environmental rollbacks) to the election. He stated that voters in these states should vote for him for helping their economies.
Such drilling operations would impact already struggling polar bear populations and cause development of an area left in its natural state for decades. As many of you know, I love Alaska and our national parks (You can search Denali or Alaska to see some of the pictures like this one from past hiking trips). This approval is devastating news to those of us who love the natural beauty of Alaska. This area between the Arctic Ocean to the north and Canada’s Yukon to the east is considered one of the most unique places in the world. It will now be developed for oil at a time when the world has too much oil and demand is falling.
Congress passed a mandate to lease oil from part of the refuge in its tax overhaul in 2017 and many of us objected to the move. Various banks and major financial groups have pledged not to fund such ANWR drilling due to its damage to these natural areas. The approval will mean roads, drill pads, and hundreds of miles of pipe line.The 19.6-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is home to more than 200 migratory bird species as well as other populations of wolves, musk ox and the 130,000-member porcupine caribou herd.
Trump’s environmental policy>> let’s say the environment is a bed, so therefore the logical conclusion is to hire Russian hookers to piss on it because rumor had it the previous president slept in that bed.
Easy peasy. That’s pretty much trump policy across the board.
Isn’t it past time to move beyond fossil fuel?
If it were past time, you’d have cost effective alternatives and we wouldn’t be having these disputes. The green energy pushers want subsidies for favored businesses and wish to harass normal people. If they weren’t people of an abusive disposition, they’d advocate a menu of measures to have people in their capacity as energy consumers to assume the cost for certain externalities. Among them would be financing the maintenance of limited access highways out of tolls, financing the maintenance of public roads through excises on motor fuels, and having excises on industrial effluvia for which the proceeds are deposited in holding funds which are maintained until the end of a fiscal year, at which point the contents are remitted to tax payers by cutting a small check to each household which has paid real property taxes or filed an income tax return that fiscal year. You wouldn’t need CAFE standards and you wouldn’t need to put the federal Energy Department in the venture capital business and you wouldn’t need to be larding federal standards atop state building codes. They don’t incorporate opportunities for graft or for making a nuisance of yourself to normal people, so liberals will never advocate these measures.
Spoken like a true climate denier!
Formidable pretzel logic…
Your mom wants you outdoors today.
The invisible hand strikes again, eh?
No, her visible and palpable hand should repeatedly slap you across the mouth.
When you have to resort to threats of violence, your argument is lost (& absurd at that.)
You know better than that. Your mother raised you better than that bully schtick.
Check mate.
Your mother raised you better than that bully schtick.
My mother was perfectly aware of how you discipline recalcitrant children and yours should be too.
She taught you that corporal punishment was a good thing?
I feel sorry for you.
Thoughts and prayers.
She taught you that corporal punishment was a good thing?
Yep. Have a gander at yourself in the mirror.
Olaf,
That would be great, but the current alternatives aren’t great and are pretty heavy users of fossil fuels themselves
I hear switchgrass actually performs better as a biofuel than corn. Maybe this is an opportunity for farmers to explore new avenues.
https: //www.audubon.org/magazine/september-october-2007/the-virtues-switchgrass-alternative
Nuclear fission energy is low carbon emissions and very efficient. Democrats hate it. and like other alternatives to fossil fuels, they require fossil fuel infrastructure to build and operate safely.
Instead the genius Democrats and their pets favor development of solar & wind which are just fine except not very efficient financially and require the fossil fuel infrastructure to build and maintain them. Worst of all, they have little or no storage capacity
The big problem for all alternative fuels, setting aside the serious financial difficulties, is storage of excess produced electricity.
The amount of energy which is stored chemically in compact form by naturally occurring hydrocarbons like oil and coal, is massively more than can be stored with existing forms of batteries.
Feel free, “Olaf” to educate yourself just on that problem of storage, and then you can report back here for a serious conversation. I can see from your insults of absurd you are not ready for a serious conversation
PS let’s say Biden gets a win. Solar gets a boost. Price of silver will shoot from 25 to $50 a troy oz very fast. Then, “to the moon!”
Not enough silver out there to build half the solar panels the Dems pretend they will build. Going to take a lot of “fossil fuel” consumption digging at the mines to get more of it!
here’s a different thought. no way of moving past fossil fuels while the population of Africa is still growing fast. Let’s get Planned Parenthood to start some missions over there, huh? Could be like Peace Corps sort of. I’d sign up for more taxes to fund that one. But, I heard Bill Gates is making big strides there already. Fingers crossed! I know you Dems are with me on this one. You don’t have to say “AMEN” all at once! LOLZ
If I remember correctly, I think the Great Auk had similar issues.
Haven’t seen one for some time.