01 Mar 2002 Teamsters Union Claims Environmentalist Support For ANWR Oil Exploration, by Tom Randall

BACKGROUND: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a strong supporter of President Bush’s energy plan, issued a press release dated February 26, 2002 claiming the plan to drill in ANWR has the support of environmentalists with past or current affiliations with the Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

The Teamsters quote Doug Wheeler, former executive director of the Sierra Club, as saying, “The exploration and development of energy resources in the United States is governed by the world’s most stringent environmental constraints, and to force development elsewhere is to accept the inevitability of less rigorous oversight.”1

TEN SECOND RESPONSE: Responsible environmentalists, if they are being 6onest with themselves, know that U.S. oil exploration is environmentally-friendly.

THIRTY SECOND RESPONSE: When former Sierra Club executive director Doug Wheeler says that the alternative to oil exploration in the U.S. is to force exploration to be done in other countries, under less environmentally-safe standards, he is absolutely right. Even former President Bill Clinton’s Department of Energy agreed and supported exploration in Alaska.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Bill Clinton’s Department of Energy was a strong supporter of Alaska oil exploration (while opposing ANWR drilling, the Administration did open other areas in the North Slope of Alaska), citing how environmentally friendly new techniques are. Their position is outlined in “Bill Clinton’s Department of Energy is on Record: Oil and Gas Exploration is Environmentally-Friendly” at https://nationalcenter.org/TSR21302.html.

For a brief discussion of how significant exploring for oil in Alaska will be to the U.S., see “Senate Democrats Fight Energy Bill” at https://nationalcenter.org/TSR101801.html.

For a discussion of why Alaskan exploration is so much more important than “alternative” energy sources, see “Wishes Won’t Fuel Our Economy: We Need Oil Drilling” at https://nationalcenter.org/NPA375.html.

To read about a virtually limitless source of safe, clean nuclear energy, see “Integral Fast Reactors” Source of Safe, Abundant, Non-Polluting Power” at https://nationalcenter.org/NPA378.html.

For a look at how Senator Daschle’s proposed energy bill raises unfounded global warming issues which would increase energy costs, see “Senate Democrats’ Energy Bill Promotes Global Warming Theory” at https://nationalcenter.org/TSR121701.html.