ANWR Quotes
The ad was prepared by American Renewal, the political lobbying wing of the FRC. This quotation would be typical of the political technique of using the most tenuous, remote connection between a politician of the opposing party and a really evil world villain that was so commonly used by conservative politicians at the time. However, what makes the quotation even more noteworthy is that there is an equally tenuous connection between the Family Research Council's Focus on Families as defined in its charter and the subject of the ad–drilling for oil in the environmentally fragile areas of the Anwar of Alaska. Some of the FRC officials justify their getting into this issues as the drilling could help the economy and that will create jobs and then families will have more resources to spend for nutrition, education, health care etc. With that logic, there is nothing in politics that would be beyond their purview so why have a charter and a mission at all?
ANWR stands for the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve. The oil companies want to drill for oil in the reserve and feel that the risk to the pristine natural area is justified by the value of the oil to the nation. At the beginning of their efforts, they maintained that drilling was "no risk" to the environment. However, after the BP oil spill that did so much damage and could not be controlled for months, most oil companies admit there is some risk, but argue that the benefit is worth it. Opponents do not think the benefit is sufficiently great to risk the wildlife and the rest of the ecology, and some argue that the oil itself is just more fossil fuel that will increase the rate of global warming. The “legal bribery” to which President Carter refers is the loophole in the existing laws and rules of trhe House and Senate which allow members to take money from companies or rich individuals and in return give special access to them and their staffs, provide them with early copies of proposed legislation of committee reports, allows them to draft laws or amendments or statements for their speeches, supports their bids for government contracts, makes inquiries to government agencies on the company’s behalf and provides other services that the company executives will bring them more money that the “campaign contributions” cost them.
