Obama to seek wilderness designation for Alaska refuge

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he will ask Congress to designate more than 12 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, including the Coastal Plain, as a wilderness area. The designation would seal the area off from oil exploration and give it the highest degree of federal protection available to public lands.

The nearly 20 million acre refuge has long been a piece of contentious land in the struggle between conservationists and advocates of greater energy exploration in the United States.

In a White House video released Sunday, Obama says he is seeking the designation "so we can make sure that this amazing wonder is preserved for future generations."

The Department of Interior on Sunday issued a comprehensive plan that for the first time recommended the additional protections.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150125/us--obama-alaska_wilderness-d7ec88f6dc.html

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Let them drill drill drill on Palin's yard!

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. ...as vast as Palin's empty head,

but certainly worth saving.

[Panich52]

2. Hope he succeeds...

Conoco is having didpute w/ BLM. They want to put a pipeline in the buffer zone between North Slope drilling and ANWR. Alaska, who's having budget problems because of their oil-based economy is on Conoco's side (their pols also support KXL). Giving ANWR federal protected status is best chance to protect it.

[JDDavis]

3. Here's a video from the White House about this

[Duppers]

4. Good luck, Mr. President

With these rethugs, there's a fat chance.

He should make it a Presidential decree, upon his retirement.

[hue]

5. more on this...I was just going to post this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/us/politics/obama-to-seek-to-protect-millions-of-acres-of-arctic-habitat.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&hp&_r=0

WASHINGTON — President Obama will ask Congress to increase environmental protections for millions of acres of pristine animal habitat in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska in a move that already has triggered fierce opposition from the state’s Republican lawmakers.

The White House announced Sunday that Mr. Obama would ask Congress to designate 12 million acres of the refuge’s 19 million acres as wilderness. The wilderness designation is the strongest level of federal protection afforded to public lands, and would forbid a range of activity that includes drilling for oil and gas and construction of roads.

If the proposal is enacted, the area would be the largest wilderness designation since Congress passed the Wilderness Act over 50 years ago. But the proposal seems unlikely to find support in Congress, now with a Republican majority in both houses and a leadership that has consistently rebuffed Mr. Obama’s environmental agenda.

[uppityperson]

7. k&r

[IdiotsforPalin]

8. Did you hear that?

I think Sarah Palin's head just exploded!!!

[tabasco]

9. Thank you, Mr. President!

[Chakaconcarne]

10. This REALLY needs to happen......

But what are the chances it will?

[Cha]

11. K!

[cheapdate]

12. Hope with all my heart this happens.

[catbyte]

13. Nice thought, it will never happen. Republicans & their crooked, vile cronies have

wanted to sink their hooks into ANWR for decades now. Greedy pieces of s---.