Environmental Law

Parnell claims administration openly hostile to oil states: Gov. Sean Parnell | Alaska news at adn.com

By STEPHEN HOLZER

In a speech at the National Press Club, the Republican governor called the federal government "openly hostile" to oil-producing states, particularly for the delays in allowing Shell to drill exploratory wells on leases off Alaska's northern coast that the company purchased in 2008.

"If it looks like a moratorium and walks like a moratorium ... maybe it is," said Parnell, who is in Washington this weekend for the National Governor's Association winter meeting.

Parnell said there's a direct link between the economic recovery and the failure to use Alaska's oil reserves as a national security buffer against the uncertainty in Libya and other oil-producing countries in the Middle East. Higher gasoline prices could harm any economic recovery, Parnell said.

"This is the moment our government must re-examine its 'no new wells' policy when it comes to oil exploration and development here at home," Parnell said. "The U.S. foolishly imports more than 63 percent of our oil. That leaves us vulnerable to the economic shock of disruption of these oil supplies and it drives down that economic recovery."

via www.adn.com

This article presents pro's and con's about Gov. Parnell's argument. Especially see the commetns at the bottom of the article (some of the comments are the ususal ad hominem attacks and contribute nothing to the post-Giffords shooting "civility" cries we hear about so much from the media).

Full post as published by Environmental Legal Blogs on February 26, 2011 (boomark / email).