Alaska has seen resources come and go. Fur and gold are gone and oil is going. The pipeline is running at 50%. Alaska bailed us out the past few years. There is still 35 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves on Alaska’s North Slope. A proposed $26 billion natural gas pipeline would be the largest private-sector project in North America.
What would it do for the US. Heat thousands of homes for many, many years. Possibly run our automobiles as compressed natural gas. Offer an alternative to ethanol that is not subsidized by your tax dollars and doesn’t drive up food prices worldwide. Let’s go, you say. Not so fast.
The Feds say the polar bear population may be in danger. This would bring the proposed pipeline to a halt. "This is yet another example of how a law with the best of intentions has been subverted by the lawyers for the extreme environmental organizations and the liberal Democratic leadership," Rep. Don Young said. Alaska’s elected officials are rejecting climate models that say the polar ice cap will be melted down by 2030 or sooner and that polar bears could be wiped out by 2050.
Alaska also wants to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This is opposed by the environmentalists and politicians in the Lower 48. The issues remains before congress.
For the sake of your grandchildren you had better root for Alaska. They want to help, and we are too smug to realize that we are going to need that help.
