Originally posted by burdman30ott6
Originally posted by mybigunit
reply to post by burdman30ott6
... I will say this though. The republicans had 6 years of control of government they had the congress and president and didnt do crap with it. They
had the chance to drill but didnt do it why? I ask the same think as far as the first Bush and Regan why were they not drilling up there...
KNOW YOUR HISTORY!!!
Reagan was prepared to approve ANWAR drilling in 1987, he was awaiting an energy bill that would have granted congressional approval for it, but it
fillibustered by house dems. The Republican lead congress incorporated ANWAR drilling into their 1995 budget, which Bill Clinton vetoed citing the
ANWAR provision as reason for the veto. In 2002 the House approved drilling, while the Senate couldn't get the 2/3rds majority required to break the
dem. fillibuster to get the deal done. alaskalegislature.com... 3 other times in the past 4 years the dems
fillibustered their way to blocking the drilling. When the Republicans tried to incorporate it into the 2006 budget, which could not be fillibustered,
the Dems whined and stated that they would basically refuse to work with the Republicans over anything whatsoever unless the provision was removed.
It was removed under said duress and returned as a proposed bill... which was promptly fillibustered.
They tried, which is sure as hell alot more than I can ever say for the Democrats involved in the issue. Remember kids, if you don't get your way,
whine about it and then when you're older call that whining "fillibustering" and it suddenly becomes a "legitimate" way to prevent majority rule
in a democracy.

That's funny, it's usually Conservatives whining about how "this is a Republic, not a Democracy"!!
In the end it doesn't matter. ANWAR doesn't have enough in it to make a dent in our consumption whether we drill there or not and the expense of
drilling it would probably be higher than the return to the oil companies.
That's one other reason more refineries aren't built--blame Liberals and Environmentalists all you want; fact is oil companies don't want to spend
the money to build the things either, especially when they can use the lack thereof as an excuse to restrict supply and spike demand and prices. And
of course they'd have to pay people to run and maintain them, and build the infrastructure to pump crude from the tankers, and.... Yeah, I'm sure
they're all falling over each other to be the first to plunk down a few billion the second the EPA turns its back.
The oil companies benefit plenty from the status quo, and they flippin' KNOW it.
But, it's better to blame Liberals and their regulations than admit you (oil company shareholders/officers) actually LIKE things the way they are.