In yet another example of the White House playing politics at the expense of American citizens...
President Obama announced a plan on Sunday to preserve Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that includes asking the GOP-led Congress to designate more than 12 million acres as a protected wilderness, which includes the potentially oil-rich Coastal Plain.
The designation would halt oil exploration in Alaska's northeast corner and give the region the highest degree of federal protection available to public lands.
The refuge's Coastal Plain has long been at the center of the struggle between conservationists and advocates of greater energy exploration in the United States. And Obama's efforts to win wilderness designation will likely face stiff resistance in the Republican-controlled Congress.
Alaska's top elected officials -- including Gov. Bill Walker and senior Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, both Republicans -- have already reacted angrily at the administration's moves.
“I have tried to work with this administration, even though they've made it extremely difficult every step of the way,” said Murkowski, chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “But those days are officially over. We are left with no choice but to hit back as hard as we can."
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Again and again, the President has shown that, like his counterparts across the aisle, he's more interested in playing the political game in Washington than acting in the best interests of the country. Limiting our dependence on foreign oil keeps us from having to make poor economic, political, diplomatic, and military choices; but the President seems more concerned with pleasing certain segments of his party than in ensuring our economic and national security.
