There is hope, as rouge fuel trading countries are becoming more and more rougish:
President Bush lifted the drilling ban Tuesday 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 local communities had asked for the ban to be lifted, but environmentalists have warned against drilling in the bay, which is also a major fishing area for salmon, crab and cod.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said one or two lease sales in about 5.6 million acres of Bristol Bay will be considered for leasing in the department’s upcoming five-year 2007-12 lease plan.
Separately, Bush lifted a drilling moratorium in an area of the central Gulf of Mexico known as Lease Area 181, making that area available to drilling.
Of course, the enviromentalist movement will decry this with all their might, as they would rather have us dependent upon Mideast and South American countries who wish us ill to provide us with oil. They don’t want a better environment; they want our economy to be weakened and ultimately destroyed.
More still needs to be done, though. More refineries will need to be built, along with opening up more areas designated for oil and gas development. But this is definitely a smart start.
(link via James Hudnall)
Hopefully the non-polluting and cheap enough technology for oil extraction from shale will come through quickly enough.