Who cares about the environment when there's oil to be found!

[southernhybrid]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/06/climate/trump-sage-grouse-oil.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

The Trump administration on Thursday detailed its plan to open nine million acres to drilling and mining by stripping away protections for the sage grouse, an imperiled ground-nesting bird that oil companies have long considered an obstacle to some of the richest deposits in the American West.

In one stroke, the action would open more land to drilling than any other step the administration has taken, environmental policy experts said. It drew immediate criticism from environmentalists while energy-industry representatives praised the move, saying that the earlier policy represented an overreach of federal authority.

“This is millions and millions of acres of Western land that stretch across the spine of this nation,” said Bobby McEnaney, an expert in Western land use at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. “With this single action, the administration is saying: This landscape doesn’t matter. This species doesn’t matter. Oil and gas matter.”

 

[bleubird]

As an Alaskan I am torn on this issue.On one hand we need oil and gas to fund our states economy,but we are part of the climate change problem.On the bright side we have a lot of natural gas.It could help fund the state and be a transition energy.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

As an Alaskan I am torn on this issue.On one hand we need oil and gas to fund our states economy,but we are part of the climate change problem.On the bright side we have a lot of natural gas.It could help fund the state and be a transition energy.

Well, you don't need oil and gas to fund your state's economy, you choose to use oil and gas to fund your state's economy. If new technology caused the price of oil to drop to $2/barrel, you'd still be able to build an economy up there - tourist dollars for seal clubbing expeditions, for instance.

 

[southernhybrid]

We really don't need to drill for more oil since there's such a glut on the market that OPEC decided to pull back on production in order to allow the price to rise. I understand the thing about Alaska, but at the same time, all this extra drilling will have a negative impact on the environment as well as the climate. These are public lands, wilderness areas that Trump wants to allow drilling on. Sometimes, I think all that man wants to do is destroy stuff.

 

[Worldtraveller]

I hope there are some Earth First! chapters still around and active.

 

[Elixir]

We really don't need to drill for more oil since there's such a glut on the market that OPEC decided to pull back on production in order to allow the price to rise. I understand the thing about Alaska, but at the same time, all this extra drilling will have a negative impact on the environment as well as the climate. These are public lands, wilderness areas that Trump wants to allow drilling on. Sometimes, I think all that man wants to do is destroy stuff.

Here's the truth, SH:

Donald wants to be in The Billionaire Club. So far, he has been snubbed at every turn. He doesn't have the power to be a Pootie, little Rocket Man, Duterte or bin Salman, and doesn't have the business savvy or earning ability of a Gates, Bezos, Buffet, or Branson - he's just a spoiled brat who inherited a bunch of money he leveraged to make himself famous. And he resents it with every fiber of his being. He still thinks (even after his tax ripoff&giveway flopped) that if he does things to make billionaires in The Club more billions, they'll come around and let him in. He doesn't realize that he will first need to buy himself a billion dollars worth of class, another billion dollars worth of couth, a billion dollars worth of brains, and at least a billion dollars worth of vocabulary before any of them is going to look at him as anything but a buffoon who is out of his league. And once he does all that, he'll be broke and in debt, so he won't qualify anyhow. But he is so stupid that he just plain can't figure out why none of them want him in their Club.

THAT is why he does stuff like opening wilderness to drilling.

 

[Derec]

We really don't need to drill for more oil since there's such a glut on the market that OPEC decided to pull back on production in order to allow the price to rise. I understand the thing about Alaska, but at the same time, all this extra drilling will have a negative impact on the environment as well as the climate. These are public lands, wilderness areas that Trump wants to allow drilling on. Sometimes, I think all that man wants to do is destroy stuff.

It takes years for projects like this to come online. There may be a glut in the market right now, but most likely not in 2020 and 2021. Oil industry needs to develop new fields just to make up for natural production declines in existing fields. And new fields are getting more difficult to find.

I understand the need to protect nature. Luckily, with modern technologies like horizontal drilling oil fields can be produced with greatly reduced above ground footprint compared to what was possible in decades past.

 

[Derec]

Also, the range of the  Sage Grouse is much bigger than 9,000,000 acres (14,000 square miles, or about a square 120 miles to a side).

 

[southernhybrid]

It's about a lot more than that bird, and of course, we all know that it takes years to get the oil out of the ground. You missed the point. We need to move away from oil, not start destroying our national wildlife preserves just so we can get the oil. Did you read about how the rest of the world mocked the US, when Trump's rep gave a speech about how the US has no plans to limit carbon based fuels? It seems as if we've gone from being respected or at least listened to by our allies, oops, I mean former allies, to being despised by them. Should we keep destroying much of our habitat, just so we can keep buying all that fossil fuel? Maybe more rational minds will be in power before most of this takes place.

Trump's next more is to allow our waters to be polluted by run off from farms, golf courses, etc. I don't have time to start that thread right now. Maybe later.