The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a pristine piece of land.  The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a barren piece of land full of mosquitoes and other bothersome bugs.  Which statement is true?   Both of them are.  Opponents of expanded domestic drilling use only the first statement to jin up support for their side.  What they don’t tell you is that Area 10-02 in the Coastal Plain north region of ANWR is described by the second statement while the first statement only refers to the southern part of the Refuge.  The oil is located in the northern Coastal Plain area where mosquitoes abound.

Don’t believe me?  Check out the below video.  Luke Puckett and his trusty aide Jack Flock were trying to do a quick YouTube shot for the folks back home when they had to cut it short thanks to a swarm of mosquitoes that was trying to eat them alive.  

 

It is Joe Donnelly’s record on energy issues that is under scrutiny, but as you look at that record it becomes quite obvious that consistent votes against opening up domestic oil resources comprise a record of lethargy on an issue many Americans are concerned about.  The Luke Puckettcampaign issued a hard-hitting press release today drawing attention to Donnelly’s consistent record (his rhetoric changes, but his record doesn’t) of anti-domestic drilling votes.

Here is the Release:

Fairbanks, AK-Today Congressional candidate Luke Puckett declared that he is the only candidate running for Congress in Indiana’s 2nd District who supports lowering gas prices for Hoosiers by expanding access to large domestic oil reserves like the ones in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the oil shale deposits of Colorado and Utah.

“From January of 2007 to today, Joe Donnelly has never voted for a bill that would expand domestic oil exploration and drilling. I find it unconscionable that Mr. Donnelly would repeatedly vote to block our access to domestic oil reserves and effectively vote to hold Hoosiers hostage to foreign oil and high gas prices,” Puckett remarked.

Puckett believes that Joe Donnelly has failed to be a leader in Washington on the single biggest issue people across the district care about. The rising gas prices affect everyone from blue collar workers to white collar business owners, from soccer moms to farmers. These people were not helped when Donnelly chose to co-sponsor an obscure energy bill that will probably never see a floor vote while opposing a floor debate and vote on an energy bill that was co-sponsored by 177 members of Congress.

According to Puckett “Co-sponsoring an obscure energy bill while voting time after time against increased domestic drilling hardly qualifies as leadership. If Joe Donnelly were a leader he wouldn’t have waited until gas prices were $4 dollars a gallon and jobs were being lost before he took action. These gas prices are not new and they deserved meaningful action a long time ago.”

For Puckett, Donnelly’s vehement refusal to even sign a simple non-partisan petition stating that we should drill for domestic oil right now in order to lower gas prices illustrates how out-of-touch he is with the district. “Everywhere I go I find people talking about high gas prices and every time our campaign offers them the American Solutions ‘Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.’ petition they jump at the opportunity to sign it,” said Puckett.

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Footnote: In 2007 Joe Donnelly voted four times against increased domestic drilling. These votes were, in order, Roll Call 40, Roll Call 553, Roll Call 578 and Roll Call 1171. They may be accessed at: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/index.asp

Ten years ago we were told that it would take ten years to get the oil out of ANWR and onto the market. Today we’re told that drilling for oil in ANWR is not really much of a solution because-you probably guessed it-it will take ten years for that oil to reach the market. This argument is rather handy for opponents of domestic drilling because it allows them to eliminate a solution that they don’t like simply by inserting an amount of time between the discussion at hand at when the proposed solution is expected to take affect. In part they are relying on you to forget ten years later when the problem is still around that you mentioned the same solution before-ten years ago.

But does it really take ten years before that oil can reach us and provide us with the relief that we need? Luke Puckett wanted to find out, and here’s what he learned:



Looks like the ten year argument was another one of those myths that seem to cloud the debate about whether or not we should drill for domestic oil.  Hopefully, however, this campaign and Luke Puckett can help clear away some of those myths.

Standing at the airport waiting to board his flight to Alaska, Luke took some time to reiterate why he’s on this trip and why Joe Donnelly isn’t the right choice for Hoosiers tired of high gas prices.  Time after time Donnelly has voted against domestic drilling.  Time after time Donnelly has effectively voted to keep Hoosiers hostage to Middle Eastern oil.  We simply can’t trust Joe Donnelly to put politics aside and America first on the issue of lower gas prices and real energy independence.

This week Luke is in Alaska leading a group of congressional candidates from around the nation on a trip to the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  The purpose of the trip is to draw attention to the fact that we need to drill for domestic oil if we are going to lower gas prices and ease the burden imposed on many Americans by our nation’s over-reliance on foreign oil.  Throughout the trip Luke is doing short YouTube videos talking about where he is at, what he is doing and what he is finding out as he talks to energy experts, environmental experts, and average Alaskans. 

If we can replace Joe Donnelly’s anti-domestic drilling vote in Congress with Luke Puckett’s pro-drilling vote, we’ll begin to see a shift in how Washington approaches the issue of high gas prices.  Second District Hoosiers need somebody who will talk about real solutions and not simply repeat the latest party talking points.

In a few days Luke will be heading off to Alaska with several other congressional candidates to tour the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in order to draw attention to the fact that we need to drill for domestic oil. With gas prices at a record high, and with a significant amount of our oil coming from foreign countries that are sometimes hostile to our interests, Luke believes the time has come for us to declare our energy independence and begin drilling for American oil.

When he’s out talking to people about the need to drill in ANWR, the Gulf Coast and elsewhere, one frequent question that comes up is how much land it will take for drilling operations in ANWR. The answer is that only 2,000 acres out of ANWR’s 19,000,000 acres will be used for drilling and support operations. For a comparison, the state of Indiana is roughly 23,000,000 acres.

The 2,000 acres that we need to access for drilling operations are located on the Refuge’s northernmost section known as the Coastal Plain. This area is not the lush and beautiful part of the Refuge that tourists are often familiar with. Instead of green mountains, blue rivers, and pastures teaming with animal life, the Plain is home to bugs and hardy grass plants and vast spaces of nothingness.

To get an idea of what drilling in ANWR would be like, check out the below chart.