Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Governor Bill Walker of Alaska has demanded oil company be granted access to protected Alaskan wildernesses, to raise the money needed to pay for helping people affected by climate change.
According to the BBC;
“We are in a significant fiscal challenge. We have villages that are washing away because of changes in the climate,” Governor Walker said.
“I don’t see anyone putting together contribution funds to help move Kivalina; that is our obligation, we stand by that – we need to figure out how to do that. But those are very expensive – we have about 12 villages in that situation.
I asked him if extra drilling was needed to help pay for these impacts.
“Absolutely, in a responsible way as we have in the past.”
The governor argues that a small part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be drilled to boost Alaska’s revenues.
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34501867
Let us hope President Obama responds positively, to Governor Walker’s plea on behalf of his people, for oil exploration access to Federal land.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
OK So as they say here’s the rest of the story: The barrier island is eroding as a consequence of a civic improvement project that destabilized the shore by removing and replacing gravel that served as a barrier to that erosion. Those facts of the matter used to be on the town’s webpage until the interior secretary visited and declared made them the posterchild for global warming. Many locals blamed a contractor that wouldn’t listen to the locals about the right approach for performing the excavation. The island has a population of some 450 residents comprising about 63 families. The government claims it is going to cost 63 MILLION DOLLARS to relocate the village 9 miles away on the mainland. This is a village whose primary source of food is generated by…WHALING!!!! Most extraordinary amount of bullshit packed in a news item by the Climate change crowd evah!
Hot off the press (announced today), here is some of the oil Gov. Walker is looking for. I am guessing enough to relocate a village ( the rest of the associated issues have been well covered by others) :
http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/Armstrong+And+Repsol+Restructure+Alaska+Project/10967372.html
“Over the last four years, the venture has drilled 16 wildcat and appraisal wells on the North Slope resulting in a 100% track record of finding oil with most wells having oil pay in multiple zones. Third-party engineering firm DeGolyer and MacNaughton reports C1 reserves of 497 million barrels of oil (MMBO), C2 reserves of 1,438 MMBO and C3 reserves of 3,758 MMBO.”
The problem discussed in the article is about erosion. Storms eroding away the shoreline and bringing the beach closer. The featured event was the overnight storm that brought the beach 10 feet closer to the airport. Not because sea level rose overnight. Erosion is only a climate change issue if storms are getting more frequent or more severe, which has not happened to any significant degree.
Sea level rise has been only inches over the last 50 years, half a foot if you look at measurements from satellites, less than that if you look at tide gauge measurements. The governor is a politician, and a politician’s job is protect the people he represents without costing them money. If the Alaska governor says their cities are washing away because of erosion then they look like idiots who built cities in a stupid spot and we would not have any sympathy for them. If he says the cities are washing away because of climate change then they look like victims, and they deserve special considerations. The man wants to make more money for his state, he can’t just say he wants to drill more to make more money, he has to spin it so that his request looks like he is taking action to counteract a force that has made the people of his state a victim.
…duh…
Biggest state in the union has not an ounce of spine. Take back all the land that is under federal oversight. Exercise your sovereignty! All of today’s politicians are hapless boys; posing as men.
Hey, why didn’t the tobacco companies think of this: grow more tobacco to pay for people’s cancer treatments due to smoking tobacco.
Wow.
traffy,
Hey, why didn’t marijuana dealers think of this: grow more weed to pay for psychiatric treatment due to dope smoking? That makes about as much sense.
Trafamadore (can’t figure out what your “handle” means, by the way ) , a more fitting analogy would be if someone used their private jet to fly around the globe fighting “climate change”,…..
In the 1970s, Governor Bill Walker of Alaska was probably too busy playing with his ‘Teddy Bear’ to have been aware of the massive oil find by ARCO on Gull Island, Prudhoe Bay. The Federal government immediately had it classified, capped, and the rig removed.
From Gull Island, alone, Alaska could produce 2 million barrels of oil every 24 hours for over 20 years, without any decrease in production. The oil flows out at about 136 degrees F at about 1,600 pounds of natural pressure. There is just so much oil in the area like at the Kuparuk oil field, America really does not have an energy problem.
What about the quality of the oil? It’s top grade!!!
Sulphur content – 0.9%
Flash point of the oil – 35 degrees F
Wax content – 6%
Asphalt content – 2%
Crude freeze temperature (pour point) 15 degrees F
I think every one needs to take a breath and cool down; I listened to the interview and the Governor did say “Climate Change” but the context wasn’t necessarily AGW style climate change, the Beeb put a lot of words in his mouth, to make the interview fit the official narrative.