In Reply to: Interesting Fact posted by Jason on December 14, 2006 at 10:24:07:

Thanks. I won't belabor the point as this is a scuba board.

Senator Ted has been around a while.

The Congressional delegation that asked that the Congressinal moratorium be imposed on drilling in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez is the same delegation and leadership that asked that it be removed. The entire Congress voted on the request. Locals do know that times change.

As far as diving in the PWS, there is a lot of diving that goes on there. In fact, it is the location of one of the most heavily used dive sites in the State. Development and preservation are not mutually exclusive. You can get oil to power your economy and care about the ocean. We don't all have to be Ludites.

The bridge to nowhere actually goes somewhere. The LA Times quoting a press release from an interest group is hardly evidence that something is bad. It is good posturing and politics but hardly critical analysis.

Infrastructure needs and effects are usually local concerns that everybody wants locally but wants everyone else to pay for. The idea is to concentrate benefits and diffuse costs. The system works because over time everyone is indulged. Remember when the 11 and 7 highways, which were operated and maintained by the State of California in Los Angeles became the 710 and 110 and part of the Interstate Highway system paid for by all of us who drive and pay gas taxes? Alaska does not have an interstate highway, yet Hawaii does (I am still trying to figure that one out).

Thanks for listening.