Bush lifts ban on oil drilling in Alaska fishery

[Judi Lynn]

Bush lifts ban on oil drilling in Alaska fishery
Bristol Bay is world's most productive wild salmon area

MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 17 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday lifted the drilling ban for Alaska’s Bristol Bay, clearing the way for the Interior Department to open the fish-rich waters to oil and natural gas development.

Alaska officials as well as some local communities had asked for the ban to be lifted, but environmentalists and some fishermen have warned against drilling in the bay, which is the gateway for the largest wild salmon runs in the world as well as a major source for crab and cod.

"Bristol Bay is one the most important fisheries in America and in the world," Sierra Club director Carl Pope said in a statement. "It's incredibly reckless to risk such an outstanding natural resource just to satisfy Big Oil."
(snip)

The Bristol Bay waters were set aside for protection by Congress 1990, but the ban was lifted in 2003 at the request of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who argued that the area’s oil and natural gas could be developed while still protecting the fisheries.

But a separate presidential drilling ban was not to expire until 2012.
(snip/)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16545911/

[Beaverhausen]

1. God damn it!

Can he do this? Does congress have a say?

[Tellurian]

2. Well, Carl Pope better get off his butt and start a Nat'l Campaign to STOP IT..

I get mail from them once a month to join...

Show us something Carl..Show us what you stand for
rather than bribing people to join by offering free gifts!

[fooj]

3. WTF?

Is there ANYTHING this treasonous, rat bastard isn't willing to destroy for profit and power? This SICKENS me. Damn him.

[jasmeel]

4. Wow! Is there anything this asswipe can't do?

[NastyRiffraff]

5. He's thumbing his nose at the world

Particularly the Democrats. "See? SEEEEEEE?? I'm the Preznit! I'm the DECIDER!!! Nyah, nyah, nyah NYAH Yah!"

[superconnected]

6. So how can we trust him to play by any of the rules we the people have in place?

How do we know that he won't enact a law for shooting all dems tomorrow?

If he can do this - overrun congress and the will of the people, isn't it safe to say we cannot stop anything he decides to do? And that he no longer represents us, so he should be ousted immediately as a tyrant?

He is not our president. He is not functioning under the provisions the united states people elected him for, which include to act under our constitution, and, for our benefit not his.

[Nictuku]

7. Bastard!

[HuffleClaw]

8. what an utter nightmare

"for the largest wild salmon runs in the world as well as a major source for crab and cod... ...Three local governments said they felt the ban should be lifted so that the bay could be tested for oil deposits, adding that they would back drilling only if they felt it was environmentally sound."

and of COURSE they'll decide its 'environmentally sound'. what complete idiots.

[DemoTex]

9. Eat oil.

Poached, with dill. I am so fucking glad I am nearer 60 than 20.

[schrodingers_cat]

10. Thinking back to the day that I was out in the set-netting skiff,

waiting for the tide to rise to fill the nets, the air dead quiet from the early morning hour and a light fog, when a pod of beluga whales glides almost silently by, their light gray and white backs breaking the surface, exhaling more mist, as they followed the salmon up the neck of the river.
This wretched project only bookends the other equally nasty one to open a mine of some sort at the top of Alaska's greatest spawning river, putting the slag pools mere feet away from the mouth of the river.

:puke:

[crikkett]

16. that didn't happen did it? the mine?

[harpboy_ak]

17. It's called the Pebble mine, and no.

They want to create a huge open pit mine at the headwaters of one of the largest salmon producing river systems in the world. The claim is owned by Northern Dynasty Ltd, another one of those Vancouver Exchange pump'n'dump Canadian mining companies.

Fortunately, there are several large and expensive sport fishing lodges in this river system, and the owners have the bucks, as well as the connections (clients are mostly major corporate execs) to fight this.

Board of Fisheries has asked the Alaska Legislature to create a fish refuge for these river systems, and you can be assured that Alaska's seafood industry will be fighting any attempt to drill in Bristol Bay.

Northern Dynasty hasn't filed any permit applications yet, but there has been a strong anti-Pebble ad campaign running on Alaska TV for months now.

Time to get this madman out of the White House!

[salin]

11. Stevens strikes again.

wonder how much in lobbying fees his son earns on this development. (Son, newly frmr head of the state senate in AL, is under a FBI investigation per influence peddling (and buying) and some of his work lobbying interests before his father have come under inspection.)

[JudyM]

12. Congress should immediately enact another ban. n/t

[olddad56]

13. It is way past time to stop pretending this guy isn't as fucking crazy as Hitler.

He is a lunatic whore for the oil companies.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. What does he care? He doesn't even like salmon.

motherfuckingsonofabitchshitferbrains :grr::grr::grr:

[Auntie Bush]

15. That's it! Bush* really is as stupid as we thought he was.

Who'd have thunk it? He is n ot only blundering through history but he's blundering through our environment! :grr: :mad: