TTEscrima

And me after all we're allies right?

Mike Brewer

Even allies keep secrets, Mr. President.

In the case of some allies...they might even spy on you.

Mike Brewer

Besides, if you're on vacation, the country's going to go to hell in a handbasket pretty damned quick! This is only a one week exercise, and we need to get it rolling!

TTEscrima

I'm just following the patterns of behavior of the previous Presidents. Actually I'm too busy yakking in other threads that require no brain power due to a splitting headache,but I'll get on this ASAP.

Tant01

Oui, oui...

Half a step ahead of you.

__________________
While the old form, jujutsu, was studied solely for fighting purposes, Kano's new system is found to promote the mental as well as the physical faculties.

T. Shidachi, 1892

Tant01

Oh, oui...Oui Of course I will gladly share what little I know Mr. President.

And since you asked this might be the perfect time to deviate from the script and provide you with mis information, glamorized news stories or special deals for favors I may need at some point in the future...



Oh, it'll cost you.


Like the accent? LOL

__________________
While the old form, jujutsu, was studied solely for fighting purposes, Kano's new system is found to promote the mental as well as the physical faculties.

T. Shidachi, 1892

TTEscrima

Alright, I've been wracking my brain over this and while it pains me to do so I believe that allowing limited drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is good for the country. I've decided that after the state of Alaska gets a cut of the 12.5 percent royalties, 50 percent of the proceeds will go toward alternative energy research overseen by the Department of Energy. Another 33 percent will go toward federal low-income home energy assistance or weatherization programs. The final 17 percent will go toward the food stamp program.

I feel that Drilling in ANWR will do more than any economic stimulus package, It will also trim the U.S. dependency on foreign sources of oil.

The money we send overseas for oil could be spent in the United States, to stimulate our economy. I think this country's going to need a real stimulus before this year's over.

TTEscrima

On February 13, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 [H.R. 5140] was signed, this stimulus package was designed to put money into the pockets of many American taxpayers. Along with the rebate checks, the bill contains some business incentives. Careful consideration was given to the package so that inflation will not affected negatively by this package. Full details are available in Section 179 which covers Expense Deductions.


• The Section 179 expense election increases to $250,000.
• The qualified property limitation is $800,000.
• These increased amounts will not be indexed for inflation under Sec. 179(b)(5).
• Effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2007.

Mike Brewer

Notice:

Regular broadcast programming will be interrupted upon the arrival of the Press. The President has agreed to hold a public, open forum press conference to address the concerns of the media and the American Public. As soon as the press has compiled its questions, the press conference will begin.

treelizard

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!

EXTRA EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT!!

Citing concerns over national security, the President has decided to sign a bill against drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge despite opposition from many environmental groups and the U.S. Senate. The Senate did not have enough votes to override the veto. The northern Alaskan coastline is a denning area for polar bears. Scott L. Schliebe, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service's Polar Bear Project in Anchorage, did not immediately return calls to comment.

Although major oil companies are no longer interested in drilling in ANWR, realizing that the oil would only meet a mere fraction of the country's needs, one oil company--Exxon--is still particularly interested. The President owns significant stock in Exxon, which may be a factor in his decision to allow drilling. The President has claimed that his oil policy will take unprecedented action to deny profits to companies that decide to drill, but many are doubtful this will actually be the case.

More as more comes! You read it here first, in the People's Times.

__________________
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http://morewomeninmma.blogspot.com

TTEscrima

As I stated in the initial release I thought long and hard and talked to as many people and experts as possible. I personally spoke with representatives of the
residents of Kaktovik, the only people living on the Coastal Plain of ANWR, and they support oil and gas development in their 'back yard'. Alaska's indigenous people have benefited greatly from North Slope production. In addition to providing a tax base for the local government, oil development has provided jobs, funding for water and sewer systems and schools. Native and village corporations with oil field-related subsidiaries are working on the North Slope, and the local government has a voice in permitting and environmental regulation.

Organizations representing the residents of the Coastal Plain and surrounding area such as the City of Kaktovic, Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation, North Slope Borough, Arctic Slope Regional Corp., Doyon Regional Corporation and Alaskan Federation of Natives have all endorsed development based on their experience with Prudhoe Bay.

Now Given the phenomenal national press coverage focused on the Gwich’in Indian ANWR position, the uninformed can only assume they live at ground zero on ANWR’s coastal plain and that their lives and cultures would be destroyed by any development there. To the contrary, the coastal plain is home only to the Inupiat Eskimos of the City of Kaktovik, population 260, who support development.

George Tagarook, Kaktovik’s vice-mayor since October 2001, eloquently explains how this issue has been misrepresented in his article entitled ANWR Reality Lies Far North of Gwich’in. In Kaktovik, a community survey (January 2000) showed78% of residents supported ANWR development.

Now moving on to the Polar bear, Hugh Vickery, spokesman for the U.S. Department of the Interior, assured me that polar bears already enjoyed some protections in the United States, including safeguards under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act.

"It is a very well-protected species, even if it is not protected under the Endangered Species Act," he said.

When asked for his professional assessment of the situation Scott L. Schliebe, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service's Polar Bear Project in Anchorage, declined to offer an opinion on whether polar bears needed more protection.

Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy), chairman of the House Resources Committee. Gave this statement "Given the rising number of polar bears in the Arctic, this appears to be a public relations and fund raising stunt."

With this in mind I felt the benefits to the nation were clear while the risks were purely speculative at best.

treelizard

Study: ANWR oil would have little impact

Heavy reliance on foreign imports would continue, agency finds

WASHINGTON - Opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil development will only slightly reduce America’s dependence on imports and would lower oil prices by less than 50 cents a barrel, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Energy Department.

The report, issued by the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, said that the President's decision to to pump oil from Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the crude could begin flowing by 2015 and reach a peak of 876,000 barrels a day by 2027.

But even at peak production, the EIA analysis said, the United States would still have to import two-thirds of its oil, as opposed to an expected 70 percent if the refuge’s oil remained off the market.

At the same time, the report said new Alaska production would stem the expected dramatic decline in domestic production and extend the economic life of the Alaska oil pipeline as production from other North Slope areas declined significantly.

But even the additional domestic production would not be enough to overcome increased demand, meaning continued heavy reliance on imports, the EIA said. Currently, the United States imports about 56 percent of the oil it consumes.

Refuge a political football
The President decided to allow Exxon access to the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain in the Alaska refuge, which geologists believe harbors about 10.4 billion barrels of crude.

Previously, the House, citing the need for more domestic oil to ease the reliance on imports, gave a green light to drilling in the refuge, but the Senate refused to go along.

Many Senate Democrats, joined by a handful of moderate Republicans, have repeatedly blocked pro-drilling legislation, arguing that the refuge would be harmed ecologically. The coastal plain, which includes calving areas for caribou, is home to polar bears and other wildlife, as well as being a stopover for an annual migration of millions of birds.

Both sides see ammunition
Both sides in the issue uses the EIA report as ammunition in the debate over energy legislation in Congress.

Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chairman of the Resources Committee, seized on the finding Tuesday that development of the refuge would boost domestic oil production by 20 percent over what it otherwise would be in 2025.

“Given America’s energy crunch, ANWR production is a must,” Pombo, who requested the analysis, said in a statement.

But environmentalists said the findings debunked arguments pushed by the Bush administration and other pro-drilling advocates that the refuge was important for national security and economic independence.

“It underscores what we’ve been saying all along, that oil drilling in the refuge would do next to nothing to actually meet America’s energy needs,” said Justin Tatham of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, an environmental organization active in protecting the refuge from development. “... We’re still going to be reliant, if not more reliant, on foreign sources of oil.”

The EIA study also noted the importance of the refuge’s oil to Alaska.

Without the refuge’s development, oil flowing from the North Slope would fall to 500,000 barrels a day — half of current levels — by 2025 and approach levels at which the pipeline may no longer be economical to operate, the report said.

Production to increase anyway
U.S. domestic oil production will increase over the next four years, from the current 5.7 million barrels a day to 6.1 million barrels a day, largely because of additional oil coming from the Gulf of Mexico, according to the EIA report.

But after that, domestic production will decline steadily without access to the Alaskan coastal plain, and it is expected to fall to 4.6 million barrels a day by 2025. With demand increasing, imports will continue to play a larger role, jumping from 9.7 million barrels a day to nearly 16 million barrels a day, about 70 percent of what is consumed by 2025.

With the 876,000 barrels the refuge could provide a day, the reliance on imports would drop to 66 percent of domestic consumption, the EIA analysis said. The study said it would likely have little impact on world oil prices — perhaps reducing the price by 30 to 50 cents a barrel if prices were in the $27-a-barrel range.

The price of light sweet crude was $37.48 per barrel Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

James Kendell, one of the authors of the study, said the refuge would add to domestic production, but “when you’re talking of a world oil market of over 75 million barrels a day, adding 900,000 barrels by 2025 is a drop in the bucket.”

No one is certain how much oil is beneath the Alaskan coastal plain. In assuming 876,000-barrel-a-day production, the EIA assumed the “mean” estimate provided by geologists of 10.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable reserves. Geologists say there could be less or much more. Environmentalists argue that much of that oil may not be economically recoverable if oil prices decline.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Disclaimer: This article was stolen from MSNBC.com and rewritten

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TTEscrima

First of all, I've been misquoted, I couldn't expect oil companies to invest time, money and resources without expectation of a return. We will lease drilling rights to these companies and that money will be allocated as I explained earlier, the profits made from the sale of the oil will belong to the companies who decide to take the risk inherit in the removal from the ground.

It is important to increase exploration and domestic production in this country. We know that China is growing, India is growing, their use of energy is increasing. We're 60-percent dependent on foreign sources of oil, those sources being in unstable parts of the world right now -- Nigeria, the region of the Middle East, Iran, Saudi Arabia.

We have to increase the supply here. The supply is there in the ANWR. We can drill for it, explore it in an environmentally friendly way, and that's why we are so convinced that we need to drill in the ANWR.

Only 8% of ANWR Would Be Considered for Exploration Only the 1.5 million acre or 8% on the northern coast of ANWR is being considered for development. The remaining 17.5 million acres or 92% of ANWR will remain permanently closed to any kind of development. If oil is discovered, less than 2000 acres of the over 1.5 million acres of the Coastal Plain would be affected. That¹s less than half of one percent of ANWR that would be affected by production activity.

2. Revenues to the State and Federal Treasury Federal revenues would be enhanced by billions of dollars from bonus bids, lease rentals, royalties and taxes. Estimates on bonus bids for ANWR by the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Interior for the first 5 years after Congressional approval are $4.2 billion. Royalty and tax estimates for the life of the 10-02 fields were estimated by the Office of Management and Budget from $152-237 billion.

3. Jobs To Be Created Between 250,000 and 735,000 ANWR jobs are estimated to be created by development of the Coastal Plain.

4. Economic Impact Between 1977 and 2004, North Slope oil field development and production activity contributed over $50 billion to the nations economy, directly impacting each state in the union.

5. America's Best Chance for a Major Discovery The Coastal Plain of ANWR is America's best possibility for the discovery of another giant "Prudhoe Bay-sized" oil and gas discovery in North America. U.S. Department of Interior estimates range from 9 to 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

6. North Slope Production in Decline The North Slope oil fields currently provide the U.S. with nearly 16% of it's domestic production and since 1988 this production has been on the decline. Peak production was reached in 1980 of two million barrels a day, but has been declining to a current level of 731,000 barrels a day.

7. Imported Oil Too Costly In 2007, the US imported an average of 60% of its oil and during certain months up to 64%. That equates to over $330 billion in oil imports. That’s $37.75 million per hour gone out of our economy! Factor in the cost to defend our imported oil, and the costs in jobs and industry sent abroad, the total would be nearly a trillion dollars.

8. No Negative Impact on Animals Oil and gas development and wildlife are successfully coexisting in Alaska 's arctic. For example, the Central Arctic Caribou Herd (CACH) which migrates through Prudhoe Bay has grown from 3000 animals to its current level of 32,000 animals. The arctic oil fields have very healthy brown bear, fox and bird populations equal to their surrounding areas.

9. Arctic Technology Advanced technology has greatly reduced the 'footprint" of arctic oil development. If Prudhoe Bay were built today, the footprint would be 1,526 acres, 64% smaller.

10. Alaskans Support More than 75% of Alaskans favor exploration and production in ANWR. The democratically elected Alaska State Legislatures, congressional delegations, and Governors elected over the past 25 years have unanimously supported opening the Coastal Plain of ANWR. The Inupiat Eskimos who live in and near ANWR support onshore oil development on the Coastal Plain.

treelizard

The Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, the Public Interest Research Group and the Sierra Club have decided to file a law suit against the current administration for violating an international treaty requiring protection of the polar bear habitat. The President has decided to allow drilling on the Beaufort Sea, threatening polar bears and other marine animals living in coastal waters off of the Arctic refuge. Although the Center (along with Greenpeace and the Natural Resource Defence Council) called on the President to protect the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, the administration did not take action on the petition for three years after it was submitted. After two lawsuits, a judge declared that a final listing decision needed to be made by May 15th. The President's decision to allow ANWR drilling came just weeks before the US Fish and Wildlife Service has been ordered to declare a designation for the polar bear.

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Mike Brewer

The National Security Advisor (that's me) would like to issue a brief statement for public consumption. This statement will be released to the press in a closed door session, and will be made available to the people sometime tomorrow.

This is not related to the oil issues already being discussed.