Opinions

Alaska Democrats can't face facts on ANWR

When columnist Shannyn Moore and and Alaska Democratic Party chair Michael Wenstrup attacked Sen. Murkowski for her leadership in support of the Keystone XL pipeline they blithely ignored the role the Democrats have played in blocking the development of ANWR. They should look to their own house if they want to know the reasons why Alaskans have been blocked from responsibly exploring ANWR and it is totally unrelated to the benefits all will derive from the Keystone project.

Their blatant hypocrisy is apparent when you read the most recently published Democratic Party National Platform: "Democrats are committed to balancing environmental protection with development, and that means preserving sensitive public lands from exploration, like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."

The restrictions on ANWR represent probably the most atrocious federal betrayal of Alaska since statehood, and these betrayals have consistently been perpetrated by Democrats. The two most glaring examples are Bill Clinton's veto of a bill to open ANWR in 1995 and Mark Begich's close friend, Sen. Maria Cantwell's filibuster of a similar bill 10 years later.

If either of those bills would have overcome Democrat opposition, it's likely that more than a million barrels per day of oil would be flowing through TAPS today, and the state would be getting a major share of the revenue. That's how our statehood compact intended it, and that's exactly what the Democrats, beholden to extreme "Lower 48" environmentalists, have worked so hard to prevent.

But you won't see Moore or Wenstrup criticizing their Washington, D.C., masters. Instead, they bizarrely attack Lisa Murkowski for supporting a pipeline that over two-thirds of the country also supports. The Keystone pipeline would move oil from Canada to refineries and ports on the U.S. Gulf Coast within a year or so. ANWR would produce oil into an existing pipeline which eventually sends its oil to refineries on the U.S. West Coast within ten years or so after it's open. The projects aren't competing.

After the sad loss of Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, the only remaining Democrat to actively join Alaskans in supporting activity in ANWR was Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. So the Democratic Senatorial Committee punished her for her pro-energy views by pulling millions of dollars in ad buys from her Senate runoff race, kicking her to the curb.

Meanwhile, President Obama's Interior Department has been working tirelessly to dream up and enforce new bureaucratic restrictions that will turn ANWR into a completely inaccessible "wilderness area" without the possibility of any sort of exploration, ever. Just look up the ANWR "comprehensive conservation plan" on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service site and read all about it. You might notice that Sen. Murkowski and Gov. Parnell wrote and submitted official comments to oppose this plan -- Mark Begich didn't. He must have been too busy writing this speech, and not mentioning ANWR in it:

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... but of course Moore and Wenstrup didn't make a peep about that Begich speech. Begich is a Democrat. And no matter what Begich says or believes, when Democrats are in power, ANWR will be blocked. This is the hard reality that Alaska Democrats have to figure out a way to face and fight, but don't bet on it. Bet they'll look, in classic liberal fashion, to blame everyone but themselves.

Peter Goldberg is chair of the Alaska Republican Party.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.

Peter Goldberg

Peter Goldberg is chair of the Alaska Republican Party.

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