and it's about time. This should have been done years ago. Anything to increase the amount of oil we put on the market is good. Fuck the caribou. They'll survive.

The effect it has is this......
They don't want us to be able to affect the market price of oil.

These two events are not a coincidence.

...the way you frame that kinda takes away from its credibility.

Rather, I see eyes as big as saucers reflecting huge dollar signs and only dollar signs. Viva Capitalism.

the funny thing is that the caribu dont seem to have taken a big hit from the industry..people thought they would die off with the pipe line..but they havnt..they acctually stay clost ot it for warmth during the mid winter. the truth is not only do we need the oil for the economy and such..but Alaska needs to be able to get to it as well. I live up here and to tell the truth in my local area one company in the oil industry is closing due to lack of buisness and the high prices.. some of the platforms are rumored to be running low and will be closing in about 5 to 10 years. this is a hard hit for my comunity. In Alaska, everyone is in the oil industry. weather your school teachers or chefs or whatever... our main suport is oil. without it the only thing we would have left is lumber.. and with the beatle kill thats not so hot anymore. I have been hopeing that they would drill in ANWR for a while now. I hope it goes through all the way.

-The US is drilling extra oil in alaska.
-Iran also rejected the UN's request to stop their nuclear program.

Looks like it's gonna rain fire on little persia.

You know what i say fuck it eventually everything is going to be parking lots and malls anyway we should just give up and invest in subtereanean housing and hide from the damn oil hungry world.

Not at all. They'll adapt, and if they don't, then that's evolution in action.

I thought the higher prices on oil would be a good thing for you. How is it a bad thing?

So you really don't know either way. That's what i figured.

...and it won't be evolution in action, it'll be us.

well, if they would focus on alternative energy vehicles, then there wouldn't been as much of a need for that shitty oil...

That's why Bush also put money into hydrogen research. He's planning for the future, while also doing what has to be done for the present.

This attitude is part of the problem. For some reason, some people think of humans as something different, and separated from nature. It couldn't be more wrong. We are a part of nature, and everything we do is natural. If we affect the environment, and some critter can't adapt to it, then it IS evolution in action.

Actually your right; you could very well chalk such behavior up to evolution, but that doesn't exclude a conscious decision to behave that way.

The whole idea originally was to tap and cap all our oil reserves.. that way when the rest of the world ran short on thier oil supplies, We(the us) would uncap and start selling back to these other nations at triple the cost.. Now it seems that we're hitting that point all to soon(the expected time frame was about 2050)!!
I think that is why the automakers are still pushing those 'big-ass' trucks and SUV's when they KNOW the fuel sources are starting to thin..
And one has to wonder why they don't push the hybrid's like they do the big guzzlers..

The decision to do, or not do, something that affects the habitat of a particular creature is arrived at in a cost/benefit analysis. The effects of those decisions are evolutionary. I'm not for killing animals just for the sake of killing animals, but we need the oil.

What's interesting about this situation is the way the cost of oil affects the decision. The reason we're even considering it is because the cost makes it possible. For new drilling in the USA to be profitable, the cost of a barrel of oil has to be $30-$35 minimum. It's way above that now, which is why the oil corps want to do it. The reason it has to cost that much to make a profit on it is because we don't go around killing animals wantonly. They can't drill the same way they do in the middle-east, or Russia. In those places they just poke holes everywhere and don't give a damn about the spillage. In the USA we have regulations about that. They have to be careful about it, and if they do make a mess, they have to clean it up.

Those are good things, but that's why it costs more to do it here than in the middle-east.

That time frame didn't take into account the booming economies of India and China which has been brought about by global free trade. Those two nations are taking a much bigger portion of the global oil supply, and it's forcing us to change plans.

They push all their products. Honda is putting the hybrid engines into their Civic and Accord models now. Toyota is starting to do the same. They also push their big trucks, because people like the big trucks. That's called economic freedom. If I want the big truck, I can get it.

Yeah, but they don't "advertise" like they do for the gas guzzlers....

Think about that....

We don't 'need' the oil, we just want it badly. You're being short-sighted about the cost/benefit analysis. You're measuring it soley on oil and money. There are greater costs/benefits at stake.

Oil is the basis of our standard of living. I want to keep that.

Your standard of living is quite different for different Americans. Some have a hybrid car, some have 20 SUV's. Are 20 SUV's worth destroying an ecosystem for?