at it again...

i ranted sufficiently about bush's oil and natural gas dreams in alaska's arctic national wildlife refuge. you can read the details by clicking here. now he's turned his sights south...can't you just see the dollar signs bulging from his eyes in cartoon style...cha-ching.

Bush Mulls Resumed Energy Drilling Off Alaska
New York Times
By FELICITY BARRINGER


Bristol Bay, Alaska, is home to endangered whales and sea lions and the world’s largest sockeye salmon run.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — President Bush is considering whether to lift the 17-year-old moratorium on energy drilling in the waters off southwestern Alaska, a White House spokeswoman said Sunday, which would allow oil and gas companies to try to tap into more than five trillion cubic feet of natural gas that lies beneath rich fishing grounds.

The push to market oil and gas leases in these waters, which oil and gas companies favor, is part of a larger national effort to expand domestic supplies of fossil fuel by opening up areas of the outer continental shelf, long off-limits to energy development.
...
In a letter to President Bush on Friday, a coalition of environmental groups, including the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Counsel, citing the impact of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, called the bay “an economically critical salmon fishery,” adding that “it provides essential habitat for the endangered northern right whale.”

The executive director of Greenpeace, John Passacantando, said Sunday that the Bering Sea was “the most intact marine ecosystem in United States waters” and that Bristol Bay was “among the most important parts of the Bering Sea.”

Asked about the potential impact of an outer continental shelf leasing program confined to the southern waters of the bay, Mr. Passacantando said: “The energy industry ultimately gives you things that look like the Exxon Valdez. It was because of the threat of this kind of spill that that leases were initially rescinded.”
...
Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement Sunday that “executive withdrawal on oil and gas leasing in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, one of our nation’s most sensitive fisheries, combined with House Republicans scheduling a vote next week to expand offshore drilling off Florida’s coast, only underscores that G.O.P. stands for Gas and Oil Party.”

to read the entire article, click here.

to figure out who in congress you should pester about persuing an energy plan, including alternative fuels, that will sustain the nation in the future, click here.