Alaskan Drilling Stopped... Temporarily, page 1

The Alaskan wildlife refuge ANWR has won a reprieve from drilling. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to abandon plans to open up the protected land to drilling for oil in an effort to cut U.S. spending. This is a temporary victory for environmentalists who argue that drilling will pose a risk to natural wilderness and animals who call ANWR home. Oil companies estimate that there are close to 16 billion barrels of oil under the tundra, enough to replace 30 years worth of imports from the Middle East.

www.cbc.ca
Environmentalists have won a temporary victory after Republican moderates forced leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives to abandon a controversial plan to open up an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling.

The Republican lawmakers were concerned the provision permitting oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) would jeopardize approval of a larger budget bill.

The decision is a blow to U.S. President George W. Bush, who made the Alaska drilling proposal a priority in his plan to decrease reliance on oil from the Middle East.

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Well this is a temporary victory for the environmentalists but I doubt it will last as long as Bush is in the Whitehouse. Although I know we need another supply of oil I can’t condone drilling for oil where ever we feel like drilling. The ANWR refuge was set aside as a natural refuge for a reason and that was to preserve the wilderness. If we start invading protected lands as soon as we feel we need them then when will it stop, when everything is gone? I think that all protected lands should stay that way protected unless we want to live in a world that is destroyed just because we need the resources to fuel our own greed.

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