Headline:
Alaska mulls extra oil drilling to cope with climate change
So.... BBC News or The Onion?
I'll give you a moment to decide, before you head over the divide.
BBC News, of course.
(Ex-'R') Governor Bill Walker is wondering how the State of Alaska is going to pay for dealing with Climate Change, now that OIL is tanking. Since Shell was forced to pull out of Chukchi, who is going to pump OIL through the Trans Alaska Pipeline? Such is the direction of is ruminations. Sure, the Federal Gov't will help, but real Conservatives don't sit around waiting for the gub'mint to take care of things! No siree! (Well, history may say otherwise, but this is a convenient excuse for opening up ANWAR to OIL exploration, so why the hell not).
Please go and read, just make sure you have a strong stomach. Some fair use extracts:
Expanding the search for oil is necessary to pay for the damage caused by climate change, the Governor of Alaska has told the BBC.
(...)
Governor Bill Walker says that coping with these changes is hugely expensive.
He wants to "urgently" drill in the protected lands of the Arctic National Wilderness Refuge to fund them.
(...)
The state is the only one in the US that doesn't have an income or sales tax, getting 90% of its day-to-day expenditure from levies on the production of oil and gas.(bolding mine)
Coastal erosion is threatening a number of native communities in remote areas such as Kivalina.
Evacuation seems like the long term solution but it will likely cost $100m.
To deal with situations like this, the governor told the BBC, more oil was needed.
(...)
"I don't see anyone putting together contribution funds to help move Kivalina; that is our obligation, we stand by that - we need to figure out how to do that. But those are very expensive - we have about 12 villages in that situation.
The Gwich'in people in the region depend on these animals for food, clothing and as an integral part of their culture. They are resolutely opposed to drilling in this place, regardless of what the money is used for.
"In ten years from now I'd like to see us still continuing our native ways and being able to live off the land," said Princess Daazhraii Johnson from the Gwich'in community.
"I'd like to see us agreeing, Alaskans agreeing, that we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground."