Who does he stand with? Alaskans, or the President?
The Obama administration will propose setting aside more than 12 million acres in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, the White House announced Sunday, halting any chance of oil exploration for now in the refuge’s much-fought-over coastal plain and sparking a fierce battle with Republicans, including the new chair of the Senate Energy Committee.
Right now ‘independent’ Alaskan governor Bill Walker is making noises about increasing state land oil production to make up for any potential loss of revenue, which means that he’s still trying to avoid this fight. Regretfully for Walker, this is not actually an avoidable fight. The President hates cheap energy. Republicans hate being told that they should be cold and in the dark because a bunch of radical Greenies loathe modern Western society. Both sides are absolutely happy to pick this fight. Walker will simply have to choose whether or not to fall into line behind President Obama like a good little minion.
Well, maybe he’ll surprise me favorably.
Moe Lane
PS: There is a good deal that the President can do to shut down ANWR, but fortunately there is a good deal that Congress can do to tell him no. And Congress wants this fight. You think Senate Energy Chair Lisa Murkowski doesn’t want to spend the next two years bare-knuckle brawling with the White House over oil production? The woman’s got a reelection campaign in 2016, remember?
Is it wrong of me to enjoy the upcoming battle?
I hope Sen. Murkowski puts up a fight. She is a good scrapper having (with name recognition) won a write-in campaign. She does know how to win and is willing to win ugly if that is what is needed.*
*Please – no jokes about appearance and how Hollywood is the Washington DC for beautiful people. Recall how quickly Levi (Ricky Hollywood) Johnson’s star burned out.
Levi who? I pay no attention to Hollywood at all.
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Oh, speaking of Hollywood, Moe, have you heard that some company is making a live action “Space Battleship Yamato” for American audiences? The Japanese version (with subtitles) is already out on blu-ray, and the trailer is bad assed!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u219XPYKNYY
God, I’m behind on all the stuff I could be watching NOW.
I’ve seen that particular one and it’s not very good, IMHO. The story is far more grim than the American version of the original cartoon.
I rather think he’s more intimidated by the unanimous and heavily armed populace he governs than a lame duck president with a track record of shiving political allies.
can we all guess which will be the first state to secede if it ever comes to that?
I thought this line from Murkowski was just golden and should get more play: “I cannot understand why this administration is willing to negotiate with Iran, but not Alaska.”. Reference link here: http://www.energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republican-news?ID=8d974161-b13f-45d4-9577-45f44c8e02a5
It’s simple. Iran is, at the least, his ally and colleague. Alaska is inhabited by his enemies.