After reviewing a few recent posts here implying a measured distrust of Matthew Simmons, I googled these recent articles with a quote from him regarding ANWR. It looks like to me the NWF was correct to suspect ANWR is just a "can opener" for even more ecologically sensitive drilling. And now with the big players pulling out of the artic refuge project, it appears that the target may not have been ANWR at all. Guess Matt still remembers which side his bread is buttered on. _________________________________________
Arctic a portal to the gulf
"So why would Bush put phantom revenues from refuge drilling in his budget? Matthew Simmons, a Houston investment banker to the energy industry and a former Bush adviser, may have answered that when he told the New York Times,
"If you can't do (the arctic refuge), you'll never be able to drill in the promising areas."" link
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Big oil cools on Arctic drilling
"Others who advised Bush on his energy plan said including the refuge was seen as a political maneuver to open the door to more geologically promising prospects off the coasts of California and Florida. Those areas, where tests have found oil, have been blocked for years by federal moratoriums because of political and environmental concerns."
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[Add this article which was posted in an earlier thread:
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"The obscure draft legislation, called SEACOR, or the State Enhanced Authority for Coastal and Offshore Resources Act of 2005, would expand state control over energy development in offshore waters -- and at the same time eliminate the blanket West and East Coast moratoriums given by Congress since 1982"
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Related thread:
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