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February 02, 2015
Obama may try to bypass Congress on Alaska wilderness plan
Obama may try to bypass Congress on Alaska wilderness plan
Obama has gone around Congress before, and it looks like he may try again, this time in Alaska.
On Sunday, Obama announced he and officials at the U.S. Department of the Interior want to add a whopping 12.8 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness territory, which would prevent those areas from ever being used for mining and drilling, as well as becoming off-limits to roads, vehicles and permanent structures.
Wilderness designations require approval from Congress. That figures to be an uphill climb; all the members of the Alaskan congressional delegation are dead-set against the plan, and the House and the Senate are controlled by Republicans.
But that’s not the end of the story.
The president, in a YouTube video announcing the proposal, mentioned Interior is developing a “comprehensive plan” for wilderness designation, and those details figure to allow the administration to immediately start managing a crucial, oil-rich area of ANWR and keeping anyone from extracting energy there, regardless of what Congress decides.
“What happens is the land management agency, in this case the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will step in and manage it as wilderness to protect its wilderness characteristics until Congress acts,” Robert Dillon, spokesman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told Watchdog.org on Sunday. “So now it’s de facto wilderness, regardless (of) what Congress does … It’s basically an executive order.”
One of the areas affected is 1.5 million acres of Alaska’s Coastal Plains, which is estimated to hold 10.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
The announcement Sunday and the potential administration end-around had Alaska’s Capitol Hill contingent — made up entirely of Republicans — livid.
Rep. Don Young said the wilderness proposal was “callously planned and politically motivated,” and he likened it to “spitting in our faces and telling us it’s raining outside.”
The crashing price of oil has hit Alaska hard and Gov. Bill Walker, an Independent elected in November, said the call for expanding wilderness territory in ANWR could cut off plans to accelerate the pace of oil production in the state.
“This action by the federal government is a major setback toward reaching that goal,”Walker said Sunday.
Wild Thing's comment.........
Pure evil and filled with hate for our country is exactly what this is about. He hates anything good our country does.
Posted by Wild Thing at February 2, 2015 12:50 AM
Comments
This should be up to the people of Alaska, not the Federal Government. If Congress allows this, then our Republic no longer exists.
Posted by: BobF at February 2, 2015 11:18 AM
Of course obama will go pass Congress. King obama follows no rules except those of Alinsky.
Posted by: TomR,armed in Texas at February 2, 2015 12:35 PM
