With his selection of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, Senator John McCain has found a politician to help sell the lowering of regulations on drilling in protected places. Palin supports ANWR drilling.
Produced by Dori Smith
CNN's Glenn Beck ridicules those who care about wildlife and the ANWR, promoting ANWR drilling?
BECK? Wow, look how pretty that is. It’s flat, it’s watery. Mosquito infested for your enjoyment during the summer months. It looks exactly like Prudhoe Bay which is just a couple hundred miles in the other direction. We have been drilling for oil there for years. And when all the cute caribou leave for the winter, ANWR looks even more like Prudhoe Bay; a snowy, barren wasteland that, I say, looks pretty good with that big oil well sticking out of it. Now, if you don’t want to drill in a desolate, frozen tundra we bought for its natural resources, that’s fine. I think you’re an idiot, but who am I to judge? But an important issue like this, shouldn’t we at least, have an honest debate? Shouldn’t we prevent — present the facts honestly to each other? Don’t we owe it to each other and our country?
BOEHNER? Yes, the whole area on the northern coast of Alaska, Prudhoe Bay, where we have been drilling for 30 years, where we’ve produced almost 12 billion barrels of oil, it’s right in the middle of that northern coast. And the National Petroleum Reserve is just west of it, and ANWR, the coastal area the 1002 area is just east of it.
It’s a broad, coastal plain. There’s nothing there. There is an Eskimo tribe that lives near this ANWR area; a group of 240 people who actually want us to drill because they know we can drill in a responsible way, but there’s nothing there.
We feature information on the reality of the ANWR, the fact that it won't provide significant long term oil resources, and a detailed response from Gwich’in Tribe member Luci Beach who says the ANWR region is a treasure and also sacred to her people. The Gwich'in voice has not been heard in this discussion.
