Is this The Onion or just Alaska?
by Gaius Publius
It’s not over yet — in the largest sense — but thinking like this sure moves the climate car closer to the no-return part of the cliff. The governor of Alaska wants to drill more oil to pay for … wait for it … the damage caused by climate change.
The BBC (h/t John Irving):
Alaska mulls extra oil drilling to cope with climate change
Expanding the search for oil is necessary to pay for the damage caused by climate change, the Governor of Alaska has told the BBC.
The state is suffering significant climate impacts from rising seas forcing the relocation of remote villages.
Governor Bill Walker says that coping with these changes is hugely expensive.
He wants to “urgently” drill in the protected lands of the Arctic National Wilderness Refuge to fund them.
Alaska has been severely hit by the dramatic drop in the price of oil over the past two years.
The state is the only one in the US that doesn’t have an income or sales tax, getting 90% of its day-to-day expenditure from levies on the production of oil and gas.
But the halving in the price of crude over the past year has seen Alaska’s financial health deteriorate.
The recent decision by Shell to pull out of drilling in the Chukchi sea off the state’s north coast has compounded the problem.
If Shell had found oil, it would have been a major boost for the the huge Trans Alaskan Pipeline that transports oil from the northern production fields to the tanker terminal in Valdez some 1,300km to the south.
Built to carry 2 million barrels a day, it’s running at about 25% of its capacity as existing oil field production declines.
While Alaska’s income from the oil continues to fall, expenditure on climate related activities is likely to go up. Coastal erosion is threatening a number of native communities in remote areas such as Kivalina….
Does he know he’s making no sense? Do the rugged individualist, “stand on your own two feet” voters of Alaska? Did the Onion write this piece?
Thinking like this would have stripped Easter Island of trees years ahead of schedule.
(A version of this piece appeared at Down With Tyranny. GP article archive here.)
GP
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