From: Bob & Emile Martin <bobandemileinoakwood@gmail.com>
Date: March 12, 2013 8:29:54 AM GMT-06:00
To: assign856both@m.facebook.com
Subject: Why in museum?... Because we have the worst possible leadership in NASA & wh.!
Sent from my iPad
28% of Alaska Reserve's Recoverable Oil Declared Off-Limits
Outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has signed a directive placing 28 percent of the "estimated economically recoverable oil" in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve off-limits to oil exploration.
The Record of Decision signed by Salazar marks the first time a plan has been put into effect to regulate all of the Reserve.
The action "allows the development of 72 percent of the estimated economically recoverable oil in the nearly 23-million-acre Reserve, while protecting the vital subsistence resources of Alaska Natives and the habitat of world-class wildlife populations," the Interior Department said in a statement.
The plan protects "critical areas for sensitive bird populations" and for "the roughly 400,000 caribou" in parts of the Reserve, the statement asserts.
The statement does not disclose that 28 percent of the Reserve is now closed to development. Simple math does.
The Reserve was set aside by President Warren Harding in 1923 as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy. It was transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1976 and is now known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Republicans were quick to criticize Salazar's move.
Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement: "Only in President Obama's backwards worldview of anti-energy policies does it make sense to prohibit energy production in a place specifically set aside for energy production at a time when gasoline prices are skyrocketing."
The village of Nuiqsut, a mostly Alaska Native community in the Reserve, had requested that more land south of nearby Teshekpuk Lake be made available for drilling leases, but the request was ignored by the Interior Department, CNS News reported.
Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska said: "No one disputes the importance of Teshekpuk Lake to waterfowl and caribou, but I think we should listen most closely to those who live there and depend on these critical subsistence resources as well as the economic opportunity resource development can bring."
Salazar, who oversaw a moratorium on offshore drilling after the BP oil spill and promoted alternative energy sources throughout the nation, is stepping down this month.
From: "The Heritage Foundation" <morningbell@heritage.org>
Date: March 4, 2013 6:01:51 AM GMT-06:00
To: Bobby Martin <bobbygmartin1938@gmail.com>
Subject: Morning Bell: Obama Administration Buries Good News on Keystone Pipeline
Reply-To: morningbell@heritage.org
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03/04/2013
Obama Administration Buries Good News on Keystone Pipeline
In Washington, a presidential Administration releases news it doesn't like at 5 p.m. on Fridays. So it pays to pay attention when everyone is leaving work for the weekend.
Late last Friday, the State Department released a positive environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline. President Obama has been delaying this pipeline—which would carry oil from Canada to refineries in Texas—for more than three years.
The delay has meant that America is still waiting on an additional 700,000 to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from a close ally, not to mention 179,000 American jobs.
Why has this taken so long, when all environmental reports thus far have been positive? Heritage's Nicolas Loris, the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow, explains:
Given the need for jobs and more oil on the global market to offset high prices, the permit application had been moving along positively with bipartisan support without much attention until environmental activists made blocking the Keystone XL pipeline their issue to rally around for 2011. Although President Obama and the Department of State (DOS) said they'd make a decision at the end of 2011, they ultimately catered to a narrow set of special interests, punting the decision until after the 2012 elections.
The State Department, which is overseeing the pipeline because it crosses a U.S. border, has "already conducted a thorough, three-year environmental review with multiple comment periods," Loris reported last year.
The review has been comprehensive:
DOS studied and addressed risk to soil, wetlands, water resources, vegetation, fish, wildlife, and endangered species. They concluded that the construction of the pipeline would pose minimal environmental risk. Keystone XL also met 57 specific pipeline safety standard requirements created by DOS and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Canada has oil to sell, and it isn't likely to wait forever. Forbes writer Brigham McCown said that "Delays in approving the upper portion of the pipeline have bewildered many Canadians who see the U.S. as their closest ally and trading partner."
McCown pointed out that "Even without the pipeline, Canada will continue to extract the oil which would be most likely transported by pipeline and rail to Canada's coast for shipment to Asian markets."
Because the State Department is overseeing the application, the new Secretary of State, John Kerry, will be giving his recommendation on the pipeline. Ultimately, the decision rests with President Obama. But Heritage's David Kreutzer says Congress can, and should, step in if the President continues to block it:
Should the President reject Keystone again, Congress should wield its power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and approve the pipeline's construction once the State Department again finishes its review of the rerouted project.
These delays are pointless. The Keystone pipeline has passed its environmental reviews, and the Obama Administration is only hurting America by holding it up.
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"Cardinals from around the world gathered Monday inside the Vatican for their first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope," reports the AP.
The latest eurozone country to erupt in protest is Portugal, where hundreds of thousands took to the streets over the weekend.
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In last Friday's Morning Bell, Heritage President-elect Jim DeMint predicted that President Obama would blame sequestration for economic problems. Just a few hours later, Obama did exactly as predicted.
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