McCain flip flops on Social Security

Is there no place sacred, no place off limits to the greed of the fossil fuel industry? There was a major spill at Prudhoe Bay as recently as 2006. To suggest, as drilling proponents have, that opening up ANWR to drilling would have no environmental impact is wishful thinking at best and teeters on a bald faced lie.

You ever seen ANWR? It's an ice tundra that no one visits.

A national impact study by Wharton Econometrics estimates total employment at full production in ANWR to be 735,000 jobs. Federal revenues would be enhanced by billions of dollars from bonus bids, lease rentals, royalties and taxes.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, located within the Arctic Circle in northeast Alaska, consists of 19 million acres. Congress approved exploration in the so-called 1002 Area, but President Clinton vetoed that measure. The debate in Congress today centers solely on this small section; the remaining 17.5 million acres of ANWR lie in the protected enclave that cannot be developed.

Opponents of drilling in ANWR claim it is the nation's last true wilderness, a hallowed place, and a pristine environmental area. Though such attributes describe much of ANWR, they do not accurately portray the 1002 Area.

The flat, treeless, coastal plain area at the top corner of ANWR is where the oil is located. winters on the coastal plain last for nine months; there is total darkness for 58 consecutive days; and temperatures drop to 70 degrees below zero without the wind chill. Summers are not much better. The thick ice melts, but it creates puddles on the flat tundra and attracts thousands of mosquitoes.

Drilling in the 1002 Area would occur during the harsh winter months, when operations will require the use of iced airstrips, iced roads, and iced platforms. It is estimated that there are 16 Billion barrels of oil there.

Opponents also allege that drilling in the 1002 Area would adversely affect the porcupine caribou. These same naysayers predicted similar results for Arctic caribou in the nearby oil fields of Prudhoe Bay. Since drilling began there over 20 years ago, the Arctic caribou herd has grown from 3,000 to 27,500. Nor is there a threat to the polar bear. Alaska's polar bear population is healthy and unthreatened. No polar bear has been injured or killed as a result of extracting oil in Prudhoe Bay. Furthermore, the Marine Mammals Protection Act, which protects the polar bear in existing oil fields, also would do so on ANWR's coastal plain.
 
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Thank you for the link pocket, It was under Carter, he was president till Jan 20th 2001
If you read the link you would see ANWR has been federally protected since 1960. Also, I think you mean Clinton not Carter was president until Jan 2001. I know that many, who reside on the the dark side, are of questionable intellect. I don't think that applies to you however, so I'll just assume that is a mistake.

You ever seen ANWR? It's an ice tundra that no one visits.

A national impact study by Wharton Econometrics estimates total employment at full production in ANWR to be 735,000 jobs. Federal revenues would be enhanced by billions of dollars from bonus bids, lease rentals, royalties and taxes.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, located within the Arctic Circle in northeast Alaska, consists of 19 million acres. Congress approved exploration in the so-called 1002 Area, but President Clinton vetoed that measure. The debate in Congress today centers solely on this small section; the remaining 17.5 million acres of ANWR lie in the protected enclave that cannot be developed.

Opponents of drilling in ANWR claim it is the nation's last true wilderness, a hallowed place, and a pristine environmental area. Though such attributes describe much of ANWR, they do not accurately portray the 1002 Area.

The flat, treeless, coastal plain area at the top corner of ANWR is where the oil is located. winters on the coastal plain last for nine months; there is total darkness for 58 consecutive days; and temperatures drop to 70 degrees below zero without the wind chill. Summers are not much better. The thick ice melts, but it creates puddles on the flat tundra and attracts thousands of mosquitoes.

Drilling in the 1002 Area would occur during the harsh winter months, when operations will require the use of iced airstrips, iced roads, and iced platforms. It is estimated that there are 16 Billion barrels of oil there.

Opponents also allege that drilling in the 1002 Area would adversely affect the porcupine caribou. These same naysayers predicted similar results for Arctic caribou in the nearby oil fields of Prudhoe Bay. Since drilling began there over 20 years ago, the Arctic caribou herd has grown from 3,000 to 27,500. Nor is there a threat to the polar bear. Alaska's polar bear population is healthy and unthreatened. No polar bear has been injured or killed as a result of extracting oil in Prudhoe Bay. Furthermore, the Marine Mammals Protection Act, which protects the polar bear in existing oil fields, also would do so on ANWR's coastal plain.

Yes Rob, I know all about the rather dubious arguments from drilling proponents. Since you brought up some perceived positives about Prudhoe Bay, it would only be fair if we took a look at the negatives. The formerly pristine Prudhoe Bay area now consists of:

28 oil production plants, gas processing facilities, and seawater treatment and power plants
38 gravel mines
223 production and exploratory gravel drill pads
500 miles of roads
1,800 miles of pipelines
4,800 exploration and production wells

Each year, the greedy oil industry spills tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil and other hazardous materials on the North Slope, something I notice you didn't address in your response to my previous post. In fact, every day there is on average at least one spill either in the oil fields or at the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. From 1996 to 2004, there were some 4,530 spills of more than 1.9 million gallons of diesel fuel, oil, acid, ethylene glycol, drilling fluid and other materials. Plus, I've already mentioned the major oil spill in 2006.

Each year, oil operations on Alaska's North Slope emit more than 70,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog and acid rain. Pollution from Prudhoe Bay has been detected in Barrow, Alaska, nearly 200 miles away. And pollutants from drilling operations, natural gas facilities and incinerators also have been detected in snow in the Prudhoe Bay area.

Because of the extreme cold, any physical disturbance...bulldozer tracks, seismic oil exploration, spills of oil and other toxic substances can scar the land for decades. The National Academy of Sciences concluded it is unlikely that the most disturbed habitat will ever be restored and the damage to more than 9,000 acres by oilfield roads and gravel pads is likely to remain for centuries.

I know, a bunch of stats, but they illustrate the inherit dangers and by products of any drilling operation. Prudhoe Bay, despite your caribou numbers, has been anything but an overwhelming success story. There is still a great deal of disagreement over whether drilling in ANWR would even be worth it, so let me ask you again....is there no place sacred or off limits to the greed of the oil industry, or do you feel that Exxon Mobil and others should be allowed to go about their merry way and drill, rape and pollute wherever and whenever they see fit?
 
Well, McCain has flip flopped now on so many issues it's hard to keep track, time to add one more...privatizing Social Security. Of course you could blame the obvious contradiction, revealed on the video, on senile dementia or just plain lying. One thing has become painfully obvious, McCain has both age issues and character issues, neither of which are exactly ringing endorsements for a man running for POTUS.



I didn't watch the video but I found a discussion of this online.

What you have shown us is that Sen. Obama is bad for America and Sen Mccaine is at least thinking about things.

Senator Obama wants to raise just about every tax he can think of while simultaneously talking about tax cuts. Is it really a cut if you give someone a dollar and take two?

Sen Mccaine said in 2005, a time of economic prosperity, that he could consider raising the social security tax.

Today, a time of questionable recession, he says it would be unwise to raise the social security tax because not many people could survive a 12% increase in the amount they pay for social security.

I personally think there is no right time to raise the social security tax but Sen Obama finds no wrong time to raise it and Sen Mccaine weighs his thoughts against the current economic situation.
 
I didn't watch the video but I found a discussion of this online.

What you have shown us is that Sen. Obama is bad for America and Sen Mccaine is at least thinking about things.

Senator Obama wants to raise just about every tax he can think of while simultaneously talking about tax cuts. Is it really a cut if you give someone a dollar and take two?

Sen Mccaine said in 2005, a time of economic prosperity, that he could consider raising the social security tax.

Today, a time of questionable recession, he says it would be unwise to raise the social security tax because not many people could survive a 12% increase in the amount they pay for social security.

I personally think there is no right time to raise the social security tax but Sen Obama finds no wrong time to raise it and Sen Mccaine weighs his thoughts against the current economic situation.

It is the same thing that is making Obama look weak in Iraq. McCain made his position 100% clear and Obama left his up to a million different "ifs". People get sick of trying to figure it out and just want it summed up for them, which (In my opinion) has really hurt Obama even more on foreign policy.
 
If you read the link you would see ANWR has been federally protected since 1960. Also, I think you mean Clinton not Carter was president until Jan 2001. I know that many, who reside on the the dark side, are of questionable intellect. I don't think that applies to you however, so I'll just assume that is a mistake.


Oh yes it was a mistake, thank you for pointing it out. I meant 1981 not 2001
The link said:

"In 1980, Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act Eight million acres (32,375 km²) of the refuge are designated as Wilderness Area. The 1980 expansion of the refuge designated 1.5 million acres (6,070 km²) of the coastal plain as the 1002 area and mandated studies of the natural resources of this area, especially petroleum. Congressional authorization is required before oil drilling may proceed in this area. The remaining 10.1 million acres (40,873 km²) of the refuge are designated as "Minimal Management," a category intended to maintain existing natural conditions and resource values. These areas are suitable for wilderness designation, although there are presently no proposals to designate them as wilderness."

and because it said 1980 I thought that it all happened under Ronald Reagan, but then I looked up when Carter left office and it was January 20th 1981
 
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