There are an estimated 27 billion barrels of oil waiting to be tapped in the Arctic Ocean, off the coast of Alaska. But after spending five years and nearly $4 billion, Shell Oil Company has been forced to abandon its efforts to drill for oil in the region.
With gas at $4 per gallon and higher, one might think that more oil would be a good thing. So what’s the road block? The Environmental Protection Agency. Fox News reports that the EPA is withholding necessary air permits because of a one square mile village of 245 people, 70 miles from the off-shore drilling site. From Fox News’ Dan Springer:
The EPA’s appeals board ruled that Shell had not taken into consideration emissions from an ice-breaking vessel when calculating overall greenhouse gas emissions from the project. Environmental groups were thrilled by the ruling.
“What the modeling showed was in communities like Kaktovik, Shell’s drilling would increase air pollution levels close to air quality standards,” said Eric Grafe, Earthjustice’s lead attorney on the case.
Who at the EPA made the decision? Springer writes:
I’d like one liberal to discuss with me just what, in the Constitution, allows the EPA to make such rulings.
it does not……IMPEACHMENT TIME…
I am sure that eliminating 27 billion bls of oil from the world oil supply would not affect the price of gas. I am also sure that there was no undue influence with the on the panel!
The republicans should make the EPA removal a requirement of any spending cap increase along with a few other things that benefit the American people.
The EPA is run by a bunch of panty waist liberials who never did anything other than work for the goverment . Every time I think about what they did last year with the Lead Abatement Law my blood boils. Because getto mothers let their kids suck on window sills instead of watching them, they made the entire country jump through hoops and pay to tune of millions in extra labor for remodeling work in older homes. 45 years renovating old home and never met a person with lead posioning. A map of the USA with reported lead posioning cases shows they are all in the getto. We need the oil now, to hell with the EPA.
@Mike: The classification of day care centers by the EPA is so stringent that a child under 6 years old that spends 3 hours per day 2 times a month in any building classifies that building as a day care center. That trips the EPA lead standard. Makes as much sense as controlling carbon dioxide emissions.