11.03.2005

Times up Bambi

Well there’s a sliver of good news for Republicans this week. It looks like the NRDC hippies and Larry David’s wife will no longer be able to keep us from our precious. The Senate voted (86-13) (51-48) today to allow drilling in ANWR. The 1.33 gallons-per-minute dream is still alive! Vroom!!!

2 comments:

Ben said...

This won't likely burst your bubble, but the vote was a little different according to that AP article. " An amendment offered by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., that would have removed drilling authority for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), was defeated 51-48. She called the drilling proposal a gimmick that will have little impact on oil or gasoline prices, or U.S. energy security.

Later the Senate in an 86-13 vote, required that none of the oil from ANWR can be exported. Otherwise "there is no assurance that even one drop of Alaskan oil will get to hurting Americans," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a drilling opponent who nevertheless sponsored the no- export provision."

So technically, the move to drill in ANWR was 51-48, (much closer) and the move to prevent that oil from being exported was the 86-13 vote that you reffered to.

Ben said...

Check out this videofrom the Charlie Rose show featuring Ray Kurzweil. The whole thing is worth watching, but in the context of this strand, he briefly talks about nanotechnology and it's impact on energy creation, but it's a blurb worth noting. He says that by at least 2020 (if not earlier) we will be able to create solar panels that are actually effecient (and cheap) and that fossil fuels will be completely irrelevant.