ANWR down in flames

Fiery Congressional debate marks end of fight for drilling legislation in ’05

Rose Ragsdale

Petroleum News Contributing Writer

After a tumultuous year of steady progress toward passage of an Arctic oil and gas drilling provision in Congress, Alaska senators Ted Sevens and Lisa Murkowski had to settle Dec. 21 for promises from congressional leaders that they will take up the issue again in the New Year.

The drilling proposal would open 2,000 acres to development on the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain of the vast Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the northeastern corner of Alaska.

The Alaska delegation, including Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, came closer to victory in recent weeks than it has since 1995 when both houses of Congress approved the measure only to see it vetoed by President Bill Clinton.

The Senate finally rejected the oil drilling bill late Dec. 21, after more than eight hours of behind-the-scenes wrangling that began when the Republican majority failed to rally the 60 votes needed to prevent a possible Democratic filibuster against it. The Senate then passed the $453 billion defense spending package, without ANWR, 93-0.

http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/89811183.shtml
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Should I be surprised that you never see how the 2,000 acres is calculated? Seems like a small number, but when you realize that they only count the footprint of the parts that touch the ground, alot more than 2,000 acres is getting disturbed. I don't know for sure, but I don't think they count the roads either.

When they get in there, there won't be a tree standing between the nearest road and their "2000 acre" set up.

It's a scam to get their foot in the door and then do whatever the hell they please. If someone calls them on it, they'll say whoopsie, that's not what you meant?

its as flat as a pancake from here to there and back again. They would have carved roads, piled stuff up and built camps for the drivers to stop at every so often, just like the oil pipeline. Its awesome there now. I hope it stays that way.

They add up all those little squares to make the 2,000 acres, not the massive amount of land those little squares will cover. This is an oil field in Wyoming.