Ok, seriously, i'm sick of this damn ANWAR Red Herring that's being thrown around.

Developing ANWAR as an oil source isn't the destructive and horrible thing you people make it out to be. How many of y'all that are so opposed to the development actually have any emotional or physical attachment to the area? How many of y'all plan to visit it? How many of y'all that are opposed to it have spent more than 7 days continuously in a National Park or Forest in the past 5 years? Are you seeing what i'm getting at?

Only 1.5 million acres of the 17.5 million acres in ANWAR is being considered for development. That's only 8% of the land. When you take into account the growth of jobs, the economic impact and the reduction of our foriegn dependence on oil that this will have, it's a freakin no-brainer.

Oh, it's going to affect the animals? According the the Department of the Interior the population of the Central Arctic Caribou Herd at Prudhoe Bay(a similar site already under development) has INCREASED during the last 20 years of production from 3,000 to over 20,000. Seeing as how only 8% of ANWAR will be drilled, i don't see that being an issue on the remaining 17.5 mill acres.
http://www.absc.usgs.gov/1002/section4part1.htm

In closing, i was a Parks and Rec major at A&M. That's what my degree is in. If you want to know what i think our greatest enviornmental issue is, it's the commercializing of our National Parks. In my opinion, if you have such a hard-on to see the Grand Canyon, you should be expected to put forth the effort to hike, bike, or horseback in. All the man-made structures in these parks should be eliminated and they should be allowed to return to their primitive states. ANWAR drilling could benefit the entire country. Building roads, concession stands, restrooms, cement paths through Yosemite so that the weekend tourist can drive through and not have to get out of his car defeats the purpose.

So bash Bush, but don't give me this damn "drilling is evil" nonsense.

Kitso
KS 361