Sarah Palin's "barren" ANWR

The Palins and Greta Van Susteren discussed ANWR "On The Record" and concluded that the area where Sarah Palin wants to drill, baby, drill is barren.

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, Todd, it struck me that it's quite flat and there's not a lot of -- I didn't see a lot of animal life or anything. How far south is it like this? What's the terrain like?
TODD PALIN: Many miles south before we get into the mountain range, as you can see. And so when you see pictures of ANWR in the mountains and moose, I don't see that anywhere here, or to the north of us.
SARAH PALIN: You can look about 60 miles south and still see what we're seeing right now. So yes, as Todd's suggesting, the fundraiser pictures and the websites that show waterfalls and moose and mountain ranges and Dahl sheep climbing along shale (ph), that's not the real ANWR.
VAN SUSTEREN: Is there anything to ANWR besides this flat that we've seen? I mean, have we have seen pretty much a representation of ANWR.
TODD PALIN: Pretty much. On our flight down here from Prudhoe, down here to Kavik hunting camp, yes.
VAN SUSTEREN: So what about animal life? Have we seen -- have we seen any animals since we've been here?
TODD PALIN: Saw about five caribou when we landed, and there's a caribou across the runway here. But there's plenty of caribou around here normally.
SARAH PALIN: Somebody said they saw two birds. That adds to the species list. But there are some -- out of the 20 million acres set aside in ANWR, there is wilderness. There is refuge area. There are some more beautiful, more scenic landscapes to look at. But the 1002 area, the 1.5 million acres that have been set aside for the oil and gas development, including the 2,000 acres that are needed for the footprint for the development, that's the barren remoteness that you're looking at.
VAN SUSTEREN: You know, you don't have a sense of how big this is unless you actually come up and look at it.
SARAH PALIN: Absolutely. That's key, you know, to consider the 20 million acres of this, plus the 23 million acres of -- that's pretty much adjacent to the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska area. These tens of millions of acreages that are so vast, so remote, yes, people don't understand even what kind of context we're talking about until they get up here.
VAN SUSTEREN: Todd, can you understand any of the environmental concerns or any of the complaints about this from people?
TODD PALIN: Well, you know, working on the slope for close to 20 years, knowing what we do every day to maintain our license to do business, it's hard for me to understand the direction. You know, they just want to lock up this state. Any kind of species, endangered species, they just want to lock up our complete state, let alone ANWR, for resource development.

From Wikipedia:

The question of whether to drill for oil in the ANWR has been an ongoing political controversy in the United States since 1977. The controversy surrounds drilling for oil in a 1,500,000 acres (6,100 km2) subsection on the coastal plain, known as the "1002 area." Much of the debate over whether to drill in the 1002 area of ANWR rests on the amount of economically recoverable oil, as it relates to world oil markets, weighed against the potential harm oil exploration might have upon the natural wildlife, in particular the calving ground of the Porcupine caribou.

A few google searches later, it turns out that area 1002 is far from barren.



The area is home to the following creatures: caribou, Porcupine caribou, muskoxen, polar bears, snow geese, gyrfalcons, Arctic foxes and bowhead whales, among others.

Porcupine caribou movements throughout the year in area 1002

Polar bears in area 1002

Distribution on muskoxen in area 1002

A few pictures of the wildlife in "barren" area 1002:

Porcupine caribou

Arctic gyrfalcon

Muskox

Snow geese

Bowhead whale

Arctic fox

Alaska Stock and Alaska In Pictures have hundreds of photographs of wildlife in area 1002 of ANWR.

Further reading:

Management of the 1002 Area within the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain

Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain Terrestrial Wildlife Research Summaries

Wikipedia: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy

Eco-risks loom as arctic oil activity grows

Oil or life?

Sarah Palin picked an Anchorage judge to fill the latest vacancy on the Alaska Supreme Court despite efforts by a conservative Christian group to convince her to do otherwise.

Superior Court Judge Morgan Christen, of Anchorage, was chosen over Superior Court Judge Eric Smith, of Palmer.

What's going on? How come Sarah didn't go for the judge in her neighbourhood? Eric Smith was the favourite of the Alaska Family Council - a Christian pro-family, anti-abortion group.

Morgan Christen was on the board of Planned Parenthood in the mid-1990s. Planned Parenthood is on the opposite side of a Palin-supported bill to require girls under 17 to get parental consent for an abortion.

Eric Smith was executive director of the public interest environmental law firm, Trustees for Alaska. The group currently is on the opposite side of Palin over the listing of Cook Inlet beluga whales as endangered.

Sarah's pro-life credentials are well known, she opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest. Her anti-environment credentials are also well known, with two lawsuits against the government over the listing of polar bears and beluga whales as endangered species. She took her governor's hat off to support the controversial dumping of toxic waste from Pebble Mine into the waters of Bristol Bay. Let's not forget that she wants to drill for oil and gas in ANWR.

What does the selection of a pro-choice judge to the Supreme Court over a judge presumably pro-life, pro-environment say about Sarah Palin?

The way I see it, Sarah is more pro-oil than she is pro-life.
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Sarah Palin's toxic one track mind

Sarah Palin says goodbye to Senator Kim Elton, who's moving to Washington DC, having accepted the job of Director of Alaska Affairs for the U.S. Department of the Interior:

“Senator Elton pledged his allegiance to President Obama last summer. We wish him well as he moves on and hope that he uses this job for Alaska’s benefit - to advance the state’s oil and gas issues, including the natural gas pipeline, and to work diligently to remove the barriers imposed upon all states that want to open up their shores to off-shore drilling. I hope he can represent Alaskans by opening ANWR, conveying the importance of responsible mining development, and building roads­ ­- all issues crucial to the future of our state.”

• Off-shore drilling, ANWR drilling, roads to drilling.

• Pipeline pipeline pipeline pipeline pipeline. Roads to the pipeline.

• Responsible mining. Mmmmm...

The beneficiaries: big oil companies, Pebble Mine.

They carry out their business in a very responsible way: frequent oil spills on the North Slope, which Sarah hopes to extend off-shore and to ANWR, toxic dumping in Cook Inlet, Bristol Bay and anywhere else that takes their fancy. Sarah will always do whatever she can to prevent any threatened species from being protected. She will ignore evidence that toxic dumping poisons the salmon consumed by families, causing health problems that lead to birth defects.

That's the price Alaskans pay for Sarah Palin's allegiances.

Links to previous posts
ANWR, Toxic Governor, SP toxic as ever, Big Oil 1, Big Oil 2, Wildlifegate
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ANWR

Look at these pictures of ANWR, then read about it.





"The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been providing for the physical and emotional well-being of humans for many thousands of years. It remains an important resource to help sustain local Native cultures. The Refuge continues to be valued, even by those who never travel within it's borders, as a symbol of America's vast and remote wilderness - a place of inspiration and beauty - a promise for the future for all Americans.

The Refuge, a vast and beautiful wilderness, is an intact continuum of six different ecological zones spanning some 200 miles north to south. Such a diverse spectrum of habitats and associated fish and wildlife populations within a single conservation area is unparalleled in the circumpolar north.

The area is home to some of the most diverse and spectacular wildlife in the arctic. The Refuge's rich pageant of wildlife includes 36 fish species, 36 land mammals, nine marine mammals, and more than 160 migratory and resident bird species.

It contains remote, complete, and undisturbed lands across five different ecological regions: lagoons, beaches and saltmarshes of coastal marine areas; coastal plain tundra; alpine tundra of the Brooks Range; the forest-tundra transition south of the mountains; and tall spruce, birch, and aspen of the boreal forest."

This is how Sarah Palin sees ANWR:

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, when are you going to take me to the North Slope?

SARAH PALIN: Oh, we need to get up there because you need to see it, also. You need to see ANWR. In fact, I appreciate, Greta, that your understanding also the potential that our states have to contribute towards energy independence in our nation.

Now you know a bit more about ANWR and what it looks like.

Would you say it's a good place to drill for oil?

Source: ANWR
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Big oil

During her campaign for the governorship of Alaska, Sarah Palin projected the image of a maverick, prepared to fight corruption within her own party and take on "Big Oil".

After she was elected, Sarah Palin did indeed raise taxes for the big oil companies in Alaska, swelling the state's coffers in the process. For that she became very popular. Many corrupt individuals were also exposed and she consolidated her reputation as a maverick. Much of the campaign for the vice presidency was based on these claims and reinforced the image she projected in 2006, making her the darling of the far right in the wider national arena.

Since her election, what have been some of the Governor's most high profile initiatives?

• Drilling for oil in the ANWR or, euphemistically, opening up federal lands.

• Starting two lawsuits against the federal government to remove polar bears and white Beluga whales from the endangered species list.

Who benefits from the above? Yes, the oil industry.

It appears to me that the higher taxes they had to pay amounted to a mere investment in securing the establishment of an individual in a position of power who would, from a seemingly more neutral perspective, champion the interests they were unable to fight for as large corporations. After all, Sarah Palin pursues the drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive areas in the name of Alaska...

In my opinion, taking on the corrupt element within her own party simply removed surplus snouts from the trough. Who would possibly want to spread the spoils too thinly?
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