Since President Jimmy Carter was in office, Americans have faced a crew of nihilists who really want to drill the hell out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The issue comes up like clockwork, in some form or another, every few years. The Wilderness Society sent out a press release after the new Republican budget was released.
In its just-released Fiscal Year 2018 budget resolution, the U.S. House of Representatives today included instructions that would enable the House Natural Resources Committee to authorize drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge through the federal budget process. The instructions for this committee to generate $5 billion over 10 years open the door for Congress to overturn protections against drilling in the Arctic Refuge through a budget reconciliation bill, which requires only a bare majority vote in the Senate.
The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the wildest place left in America. This biological heart of the protected refuge provides vital denning habitat for polar bears, and is the calving ground of the incredible Porcupine Caribou Herd that sustains the communities and culture of Alaska’s indigenous Gwich’in people. The area is currently off-limits to oil and gas development.
It isn’t a surprise as the Trump administration has acted the way any previous Republican administration has when it comes to the fossil fuel industry—wining and dining them in secret blood-letting rituals. Just to put it into perspective, while the nightmare Trump budget called for the committee to generate $2 billion, the Republican edition more than doubles that number—proving two things: 1) Republicans can make it even worse than Trump, and 2) Trump’s terrible at numbers and budgets and no one trusts him to make them money past using his stupid name.
The House budget instructs the Natural Resources Committee to move the bill through what's known as the budget reconciliation process, which would mean the Senate could pass it with just a simple majority. It's not the first time this has been attempted. In 1995, a reconciliation bill recommending opening ANWR made it through Congress, only to be vetoed by President Bill Clinton. It was introduced again in 2005, but didn't make it out of the Senate.
"This is a shameless attempt to push an extremely unpopular action through the back door of Congress on behalf of President Trump and the oil lobby," said Drew McConville, senior managing director for government relations for The Wilderness Society, in a statement. "This refuge is a national treasure, and we have a moral obligation to protect it for future generations of Americans. It is simply too special to drill."
When you consider that the antarctic shelf is breaking apart as we speak, why not stick some high-powered technology on the other side of the Earth and chop it up!!!! Everybody gets ice in their drinks while we watch the world go down in flames!