Congressional GOPers in Alaska

While Obama is fact-finding in Iraq, a congressional GOP delegation is in Alaska, highlighting the plight of the caribou pointing out that we have $1 trillion dollars worth of oil in them thar hills. From the KC Star:

"It's still a long road," said Steve Hansen, a GOP spokesman on the House Natural Resources Committee, where Rep. Don Young of Alaska has long pushed for drilling. "But right now the chances for opening ANWR for drilling are better than they have been for years."

Would more drilling in Alaska, in the end, move prices at the pump? Barely, suggest experts.

Still, geologists believe much could be sucked from the new petroleum frontier. Oil worth at least $1 trillion likely sits below the refuge. It could add 27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel to the daily U.S. supply, or an increase of 20 percent of domestic production. Over the estimated 30-year life of the oil field, drilling could deliver between 5 billion and 20 billion barrels of oil.

Michele Bachman from NR went along and took some pictures:

Ugh. The Grand Canyon, this is not.

But the unintentionally funniest line goes to Roger Kaye of the Fish and Wildlife service:

Roger Kaye helps manage ANWR for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is the author of Last Great Wilderness. Even if caribou numbers don't decline - they actually rose around Prudhoe Bay with the construction of the Alaska Pipeline in the 1970s - the herds might become more tame and accustomed to humans.

Wait, what? We're not drilling in Alaska and diverting $1 trillion worth of oil revenue from domestic to foreign companies so that we can prevent our caribou herds from becoming more tame!?!?

America is spending $60 bucks ++ to fill up their gas tanks (and more for heating oil) I think we can deal with tame caribou.