A letter from Robert Redford

JR writing at A Western Heart posts this emailed letter from actor Robert Redford. JR has highlighted the egregious distortions and errors in red. JR Prefaces the letter with this comment:

Apparently the email below has been widely circulated. The absurdities I have highlighted in red show that the email is meant for true believers only. Nowhere is it mentioned that only about 1% of the ANWR is proposed for drilling. And the "massive oil spills still devastating the Gulf Coast" are pure fiction of course. How desperate Hollywood actors are to be taken seriously! And how ably they reveal why they are NOT worth taking seriously.

And Robert Redford's email:

From: "Robert Redford, NRDC Action Fund"
Subject: Don't let the Arctic Refuge become Katrina's next victim
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 15:02:35 -0400 (EDT)

Dear NRDC Action Fund Supporter,
The Bush Administration and Congressional leaders are shamelessly exploiting Hurricane Katrina as the latest excuse to hand over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the oil industry. Given the massive oil spills still devastating the Gulf Coast, it defies belief that our leaders are rushing headlong to hand over America's greatest wildlife sanctuary to the oil lobby. Instead of making America more energy efficient -- the fastest way to meet our energy needs and avoid oil supply shocks -- they would sponsor yet another corporate raid on our natural heritage.

This cynical exploitation of a national tragedy has revealed, as nothing else could, the complete bankruptcy of President Bush's pro-polluter energy policies -- policies inspired by nineteenth-century oil barons. Five years of coddling the oil industry has given us higher gas prices and left us more vulnerable than ever to oil shortages -- not to mention oil spills, air pollution, despoiled public lands, and catastrophic global warming.

You and I must not let the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge become the next preventable casualty of this president's failed policies. Within the next few weeks, Congress will cast its make-or-break vote on a Budget Reconciliation Bill that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge. I urge you to pour your heart and soul into defeating that bill. If you've alerted five friends to the urgency of this effort, mobilize five more:
(link to website removed)

Make a donation so that the NRDC Action Fund can run ads mobilizing the public in key Congressional districts:
(link to website removed)

Write a personal, hand-written letter to your Representative:
(link to website removed)

Please do what it takes to win. Because all the beauty and wildness we've worked so hard to protect over the past 30 years could be lost in a single day. We can win this fight, but only if we build overwhelming public pressure on Congress one person at a time. Thank you for joining with me to make it happen.

Sincerely,
Robert Redford
NRDC Action Fund

A few comments of my own.

"Five years of coddling the oil industry has given us higher gas prices and left us more vulnerable than ever to oil shortages"

What is driving the prices up is the fact that China and India are ramping up their consumption. China is not only using much more petroleum than before, they are buying more than they use and are building up a reserve. To add to the fun, part of the high domestic cost is the simple fact that no new refineries have been built in more than 20 years. Crude does us no good if we cannot get gasoline from it. Add to this the knee-jerk reaction that enviros have when Nuclear Power is mentioned. If our gas and coal power plants were taken offline and replaced with Nuclear Reactors, our CO2 emissions would be reduced significantly. Redford's email is a heart-felt expression of concern but unfortunately, it is very misleading and only serves to continue the lies and hysteria that the enviros are using to cloud the facts.