Blunt says Chrysler closings, ANWR drilling ban related
Seeking to connect two key issues — the sagging economy and soaring gas prices — Gov. Matt Blunt is urging the state’s congressional delegation to support expanded drilling in the Alaskan wilderness.
In a letter to Sen. Claire McCaskill and the rest of Missouri’s Capitol Hill caucus, Blunt said he believes that searching for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could ease the pain at the pump, and even save local jobs.
“Upon hearing the news that Chrysler is planning to close two manufacturing plants in St. Louis,” Blunt wrote to McCaskill, “I spoke with the corporation’s leadership and learned that high gas prices were one of the primary factors in this decision that will eliminate over 2,000 jobs.”
Blunt believes that at least part of the solution for the nation’s fuel crisis lies below by the 19 million acres of land in Alaska that is currently protected by the government from drilling.
“Unfortunately, our national policies are our own worst enemy,” Blunt writes. “Our national tendency is to treat oil as a toxic menace best kept buried underground instead of as a natural resource to be responsibly gathered and effectively used.”
Though McCaskill — a key proxy for White House hopeful Barack Obama — has lambasted GOP energy policy, she and Republican presidential nominee John McCain actually agree on their opposition to Arctic drilling.
Cmon, Jake, ‘cooperation’ instead of ‘corporation’…yes, spell check won’t pick that one up.
The fact that McCaskill agrees with McCain just means they are both wrong…name the only country in the world who will not allow drilling off their coasts…yep, the US of A.
But what spell check doesn’t correct, our eagle-eyed commenters do! Thanks for the catch…
JAKE
I’d offer that the (only) solution to the problem lies in the research and design area of Daimler Chrysler, who apparently believe that people want to spend $36,000 for a minivan that only gets 16 mpg in the city, and not with opening up ANWR, which will never have the effect on oil prices that the ludicrous say it will.
Matt Blunt, as usual, is just too stupid to be taken seriously (although given daddy Blunt’s record, little Matty has at least one vote!).
Go look for those e-mails, boy!
So Blunt believes that the closing of Chrysler is the result of higher gas prices? Interesting thought in a round about way. Chrysler and the other American auto manufacturers kept making bigger and badder while foreign manufacturers realized smaller and more economical was the key. Their sales soared while Chrysler’s went down the tubes.
And now, to correct their error we should destroy our environment even more?
How about we put our efforts into creating alternative fuels? In the 60’s, JFK said we’d have a man on the moon in 10 years…Americans did it in less than 10. I’d rather my tax dollars go toward something positive and something which would maintain our natural beauty and environment. There are many things we can do besides drilling in Alaska.
is there any chance of this clown resigning before November?
For a guy who did’t want to be Gov. He sure is letting us know where he stands on the issues.
Just the usual Republican pundit talk from Blunt. With Chrysler executives talking so foolishly OI will never even consider a Chrysler automobile. What about personal responsibility on the part of Chrysler? And Blunt has the nerves to repeat such non-sense.
He’s a big supporter of useless ethanol also. That says a lot about his brilliance.
OK, so we open ANWR, use up the six to 10 months supply of oil there and we’re where? That is assumeing that the oil doesn’t just get transhipped to China or Japan which are far more closer to Alaska than we are here in the Midwest!
Gee, skippy, maybe we could harness the bloviations of irrelevant political personages and power our vehicles, eh?
Gee, skippy, maybe we could harness the bloviations of irrelevant political personages and power our vehicles, eh?
— Tim Hogan
1:35 am July 11th, 2008
No kidding. We could power the entire fleet of Metro buses with just Obama.
I am confused. All you ever hear from democrat leaning folks is that they “are for the working man” and “fight for middle class” blah blah blah. They want you to buy American and keep America working. Yet they are perfectly willing to block drilling measures, contributing to higher oil prices, and ultimately driving middle class people to buy affordable, fuel efficient, foreign vehicles thus putting American autoworkers out of work. Hmmmmm. Ponder that one.
Mattie must hate his little girl to be so short-sighted. The oil companies have buttloads of land leases they are no longer using. The Chrysler closings have more to do with ignorant americans who want big vehicles. Other countries were smart enough, and skillful enough, to make fuel efficient vehicles. This country’s auto manufactureers did not. Since the 70s they have known fuel supplies would be a problem.
Why would we want to ignore PROVEN alternative technology available now to take the lazy way out of using up our energy supplies furture generations will need? The oil shales didn’t appear in a century folks. It takes much longer than that to be a reality. Anyone who feels alternatives are not viable hasn’t researched what it there right now. And have been here since the 70s.