January 13, 2006

ANGIE BABY:

Why American Conservatives Love Merkel: In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Gary Schmitt of the conservative American Enterprise Institute discusses Angela Merkel's popularity among the American right. Just having a leader the Bush administration respects, he says, will help improve relations. Ex-chancellor Schröder, on the other hand, was "running things out of his back pocket." (Der Spiegel, 1/12/06)

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Bush has said he will meet with Merkel for a full three hours. Is that unusual for Bush?

SCHMITT: It is unusual -- it's partially because there's a host of items that have to be discussed. Iraq. Iran. Russia is becoming a much more important issue for Europe and the United States. The Bush administration is not interested in having Europe, or Germany in particular, be so dependent on a single source for energy. We don't want our closest allies to be at the mercy of any particular government, especially one that is becoming far less democratic. Energy diversification is necessary so that we can have allies who are more likely to be cooperative and helpful on the agenda we have.


A good standard to apply to ourselves as far as our overreliance on oil is concerned.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 13, 2006 4:20 PM
Comments

Unfortunately, until we get those 60 GOP votes in the Senate, the over/under on how much gas has to cost to get the Demnocrats to vote for ANWR drilling is at least $3.50 a gallon.

Posted by: John at January 13, 2006 5:53 PM

What's all this about merkins?

Posted by: Roseanne Rosanna-Dana at January 13, 2006 11:12 PM

Speaking of ANWR drilling:

Interior Dept to Open 400,000 Acres in Alaska to Oil Drilling

"The Interior Department [will] open about 400,000 acres on Alaska's North Slope for exploratory oil drilling. Officials said they would lease acreage in the northeastern corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil companies." [...]

"Government officials [estimate that the area] contains about 2 billion barrels of oil that is economically recoverable, along with 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The United States consumes more than 20 million barrels of oil per day. Much of the 23.5 million-acre petroleum reserve already is open to oil development. The reserve, created in 1923, is located west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." [...]

"[T]he Bureau of Land Management says technological advances in oil drilling allow drilling to occur without the impact previously feared."

Which would, of course, be the case in ANWR as well.

Posted by: Michael Herdegen [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 14, 2006 1:52 AM

It is not overreliance, it is reliance. Keep the inner churchlady bound and gagged.

Posted by: Palmcroft at January 14, 2006 8:02 AM
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