Unethical Republican Behaviors Will Lose Elections
Special Interest Provision Worsens Republican Party Ethics Problem
| Here is a news announcement from the absurd-sounding group "Republicans for Environmental Protection." That organization has a lot of work to do, but they are beginning. |
The Senate Budget Committee is hurting Republican prospects in the fall elections by reporting out a 2007 budget resolution that seeks to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling through a backdoor maneuver, says Republicans for Environmental Protection.
"This scheme to authorize drilling in a wildlife refuge by playing fast and loose with Senate rules can only further feed the impression that our party is ethically bankrupt," said REP Government Affairs Director David Jenkins. "Voters all over America give low marks to Congress for these sorts of shenanigans, and Republicans in both chambers really need to nip this in the bud. Concocting a one-issue budget plan to ram through an unpopular pork-barrel scheme represents a new low in ethical lapses. This could be the last straw that convinces voters to throw the Republican majority out."
REP is concerned that further damage to the GOP image will hurt any Republican running in a swing district.
"Voters witnessed Senator Stevens' cynical attempt to hold troop funding hostage to his drilling obsession and they did not like what they saw," said Jenkins. "Now, he and Senator Domenici are apparently willing to hold the GOP majority hostage as well."
REP Policy Director Jim DiPeso also pointed out that this is a good time for Republicans who have supported Arctic Refuge drilling in the past to re-evaluate their position. "Too many Republicans in Congress have swallowed the myth that drilling would be 'environmentally gentle,'" DiPeso said. "Last weekend's major oil spill at Prudhoe Bay, one of the largest ever on the North Slope, should shatter that myth once and for all."
Jenkins pointed out that while drilling advocates point to directional drilling and ice roads to support the low-impact myth, "those measures don't mean an awful lot if your pipelines leak."
"The reality is that drilling proponents have been peddling a bill of goods about what oil production in the Arctic Refuge would look like," DiPeso said.
"This spill, apparently caused by pipe corrosion, underscores why the claim that drilling in the refuge would be limited to a 2,000-acre footprint is simply false. The 2,000-acre claim does not include the web of leak-prone pipelines that would connect numerous oil production facilities scattered across most of the Arctic Refuge's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain. Last weekend's mishap at Prudhoe Bay is a preview of what we can expect if Congress buys into the unrealistic happy talk that drilling proponents have been peddling," DiPeso said.
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Also see: Ruining America's Competitiveness
Fred Foldvary: Kleptodemocracy and Klepitalism
Bush versus American Values |
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