Saturday, October 18, 2008

Beluga Whale To Kill Sarah Palin's Beloved Second Bridge To Nowhere?

In a story that seems to have gotten lost in shuffle as Americans concentrate on the upcoming Presidential Election, our Federal Government bitch slapped Alaska’s Governor Palin in placing the Beluga Whale on the endangered species list…something that Sarah Palin venomously opposed. She has even filed a lawsuit opposing the Federal Government’s decision to place Polar Bears on this same list.

Interestingly, her opposition to the Polar Bear and now the Beluga Whale being placed on the Endangered Species List are driven by self serving greed on her part. The first decision of placing the Polar Bear on the Endangered Species list could negatively impact her husband’s fishing business, as well as his financial interests in North Slope Oil Drilling (he works as a independent consultant for BP Oil, and broke his promise to quit that job if his wife were elected Governor).

The Beluga Whale being placed on the Endangered Species List threatens Sarah Palin’s own favorite PORK BARREL Project, Alaska’s second bridge to nowhere, the one that would connect Anchorage to the little, small, out of the way town of WASILLA! Let me repeat that… The Beluga Whale being placed on the Endangered Species List threatens Sarah Palin’s own favorite PORK BARREL Project, Alaska’s second bridge to nowhere, the one that would connect Anchorage to the little, small, out of the way town of WASILLA!

Sure we all remember the $350 Million Dollar Bridge to Nowhere, the one that Sarah was for before she was against it. Yet, the press has paid scant attention to the second $600 Million Dollar Bridge to Nowhere project, the bridge that would connect to the small outpost of 7,000 known as Wasilla, Alaska. If you are grabbing your calculators, the Federal Government would be spending about $89,000 per citizen in Wasilla to build this Second Bridge To Nowhere. Thankfully, Friday’s decision on the Beluga Whale’s greatly complicates this bridge project, possibly kills it…which is a good thing, since Sarah Palin’s running mate ferociously opposed the project as far back as 2005.

The listing has the potential to affect major Alaska projects including an expansion of the Port of Anchorage, additional offshore oil and gas drilling, a proposed $600 million bridge connecting Anchorage to Palin's hometown of Wasilla and a massive coal mine 45 miles south of Anchorage.

NOAA list’s some obstacles to recovery of the Beluga Whale which include:

· Beach strandings of beluga whales;
· Continued development within and along upper Cook Inlet and the cumulative effects on important beluga habitat;
· Oil and gas exploration, development, and production;
· Industrial activities that discharge or accidentally spill pollutants;
· Disease;
· Predation by killer whales.

Sarah Palin is already on record as opposing the Beluga Whale’s Endangered Listing, as well as the one declared for Alaska’s declining Polar Bear population, questioning the Scientific Conclusions of some of the world’s foremost Scientific Experts. Her biggest objections to these two listings are financial ones, as these listings hinder oil and natural gas drilling, as well as threatening her Second Bridge to Nowhere Project.

The Department of Interior has proposals that would make new oil leases available in the Cook Inlet with a value estimated at or above $1.38 Billion of new Energy Resources. The decision to put the Beluga Whale and Polar Bears on the Endangered Species List puts these leases in serious jeopardy.

Thanks to a Earmark from Republican Rep. Don Young (who has property interests near the bridge), $42 million dollars has already been wasted studying Sarah Palin’s second bridge to nowhere, which would route traffic across a narrow finger of water known as Knik Arm inlet and towards Wasilla. Meanwhile, banking on Sarah Palin’s pull as Governor of Alaska, as John McCain’s running mate, Wasilla is moving full steam ahead in pushing this Second Bridge to Nowhere forward, in getting the plans approved, and the funds EAR MARKED before the Beluga Whale derails their beloved Pork Barrel Bridge to Wasilla.

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