Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gottfried who wrote (44860)	3/30/2001 10:40:04 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 70976

OT re Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: I'm a rabid environmentalist, who (when I was half my current age) got arrested at demonstrations against nuclear power plants. And one of the reasons I live here is because there is no place else with such spectacular Nature. But........all that beauty is south of the Brooks Range (the northern-most extension of the Rockies). The Mountains, the glaciers, the forests, they are all in the south or southeast. North of the Brooks Range, it is one vast flat featureless plain, with a tiny population. ANWR will never be a tourist destination. And, in the end, the only reason humans are willing to leave a piece of Nature alone, is if we think it's pretty. So, I think ANWR will be developed. The only caveat I'd have, is that there should be draconian penalties for the oil companies, agreed upon up front, if they do another Exxon Valdez. That spill happened because of cost-cutting, cutting corners to save a buck. If they had been using double-hulled tankers, or if the spill-response mechanisms had been fully funded, that disaster wouldn't have happened, or would have been minor. With the proper incentives for good behavior, the oil companies could develop ANWR, while leaving the habitat intact. The oversight would have to come from the Feds, because the State government is owned by the development/natural-resourse-extraction interests. Our Senators, for instance, are spokesmen for oil industry interests. I can't remember the last time any State Of Alaska official said anything critical of the oil industry. In many ways, our economy and politics are colonial. Whether ANWR gets drilled depends mainly on the price of oil and natural gas. Oil at 30$, sustained for several years, guarantees it will happen. Oil at 15$, and it won't happen.