Environmental Groups Push Back against Palin's Drive to Drill in Alaska Refuge

**By David O. Williams **

Confronted with Sarah Palin's nationally broadcast campaign to push Republican presidential nominee John McCain to embrace drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), environmentalists have formed a 527 group to fight Palin and her oil-and-gas industry allies.

"Drilling has gone from being a congressional issue to a presidential campaign issue," said Emilie Surrusco, spokeswoman for the Alaska Wilderness Political Fund, a political organization formed in the last month by the nonprofit Alaska Wilderness League.

"We wanted to be able to comment on [drilling] in the context of the presidential campaign, because the main goal of both organizations is protecting Alaska's wilderness, and a big part of that is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and also the Arctic Ocean, where there's movement for offshore drilling."

Much of that movement is coming from Palin. She said during last week's only vice presidential debate with Democrat Joe Biden that she will keep pushing McCain on the issue.

While ANWR didn't come up specifically in Tuesday night's presidential debate, Barack Obama continued to sound the alarm that the United States has only 3 percent of the world's petroleum reserves but consumes 25 percent of the supply and therefore cannot drill its way out of the current energy crisis.

McCain fired back that domestic drilling, including off-shore production, must be stepped up to "bridge the gap" until a wider range of alternative energy sources are available. Obama argued that approach doesn't adequately address the immediate impacts that burning fossil fuel has on global climate change.

Surrusco said the Alaska Wilderness Political Fund 527 group (named for the IRS tax code that covers such political advocacy organizations) was formed to refute several myths Palin has been advancing since receiving the vice presidential nomination in late August.

"ANWR, of course, is a 2,000-acre swath of land in the middle of about a 20-million-acre swath of land," Palin said in a Sept. 11 interview on ABC. "Two-thousand acres that we’re asking the feds to unlock so that there can be exploration and development."

Surrusco says that assessment leaves out some crucial details. "The U.S. [Geological Survey] has shown that the oil speculated to be there is actually in small pockets spread across the whole coastal plain... In fact, 800 wells would have to be drilled to access the oil and those wells would have to be connected by a series of roads and pipelines, and then they'd have to create gravel pits and airstrips, and all kinds of infrastructure would have to be built that would be spread across the entire coastal plain."

Surrusco also said Palin overplays Alaska's role as a domestic energy producer, even feeding the line to McCain, who, during an MSNBC interview on Sept. 15, called Palin the "governor of a state that 20 percent of America’s energy supply comes from." In fact, Surrusco said, that figure is closer to 3 percent, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Read the rest of the post at Colorado Independent.

Comments

[Dynogrl]

Drill Baby Drill is so offensive... I am encouraged that the future will be fossil fuel free!

[UCSD101]

PLEASE HELP " Let your voice be heard! Talk back to the media.

AMERICA IS DEPENDING ON US. We must help heal a nation that is/was wounded and hurt by McCain and Palin.

They"ve (FAIR's Media Contact List) got to realize that all voters are not stupid and will not be convinced or fall under the spell of McCain and Palin. We actually see both sides of all issues and happen to prefer Obama"s and Biden"s views on how help lead America out of the financial crises. Also to help heal the wound, (hate, threat of vioience) that McCain and Palin inflicted upon the American people.

For FAIR and equal News reporting " please contact major news affiliations. CNN, FOX, ABC, etc. Links and additional contact information below.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=111

Sarah Palin should be impeached for obstruction of justice. She should not, (still) be on the campaign trail. She"s got to go. You think???

Obama for President " Joe Biden for Vice President.

[thecanadian]

Palin's method of controlling bears is to shoot them from the air, along with wolves, even paying a bounty of $150 for each severed left wolf foreleg. "Right-to-life" woman If you care, help get the word out with a hard-hitting television ad from Defenders of Wildlife scheduled to run on debate night. See the tv ad here:

http://www.defendersactionfund.org/

[Suzeeq]

Palin cares about nothing else in this whole wide world except one thing and she will destroy anything that gets in the one way of that one thing, be it nature or be it humanity. There is nothing more important in Palin's life than Palin and her reckless ambitions. I hope the people of Alaska do the right thing and impeach her because Palin can't help herself. She is a disgrace.

[PT6]

I wonder who will replace PALIN NOW that report says "Palin Abused her Power!

McCain has to admit he made a terrible mistake!

Then who can he find to save his base since that is all that is left?

Who would be willing to sacrifice themselves to come into a race which is 11% behind!

Who wants to lose their own self-respect by teaming with such an Unprofessional Campaign TEAM!

[Forest]

Look. John McCain is a grown man. He selected Palin not visa versa. The new slogan should be:
BLAME MCCAIN.

[R2D2-51]

From the very moment that oil was discovered that would become the primary engine that fuels the worlds economy, a replacement shoul of already been on the R & D table. Lack of vision and reality, and quite frankly common senswew led to what will ultimately end up becoming a natural resource war leading to what I believe a potential nuclear exchange.
The ANWR for drilling in the final equation will do little if anything to meet our domestic energy needs., and thus the environmental tradeoff makes it clear drill baby drill is short sighted and quite honestly, typical of those who lack critical thinking skills to face reality and focus on what really needs the most attention.

Time money and human energy should be spent on developing sustainable alternative technologies and resources to replace fossil fuels as we are nearing if we are not already there the dynamics of peak oil. Another words get a grip on reality or this short sighted idea of drilling in the ANWR will only delay the envitable.l

[lis60]

I am glad to hear this. Even that photo of the pipeline ruining the Alaskan wilderness bothers me. These people do not care AT ALL about our planet, they just don't, it is all about greed, money and NOW. How can spiritual (??religious) people not care about nature and animals-I will never understand that.

[DemoMom]

That has been on my mind too for a long time. Anyone who claims to be a Christian should be a steward of the earth and of its bounty. That means you take care of the earth and protect it for future generations not exploit it to increase your own wealth in your lifetime. Palin and her followers have no idea - they simply don't comprehend the issues and their world view is so far removed from mine that I will never understand them. What I do know for sure is that we MUST keep her away from the White House. This planet cannot afford a McCain/Palin administration - Bush/Cheney have done enough damage already in the last 8 years. Get people to the polls on election day and let's elect Obama/Biden!!!