Speaking in Anchorage, Alaska yesterday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar threw his support behind offshore drilling in the Arctic, saying the nation should “take a look at what’s up there and see what it is we can develop.”

Salazar’s support comes a week after the Interior Department issued a conditional exploration permit to Shell that would give the company four years to drill off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Companies have been pushing for more offshore drilling in the Arctic as sea ice melts faster and longer due to a changing climate, making oil and gas resources easier to access.

But late last month, U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Robert Papp testified that his agency is unprepared for an oil spill off the Arctic coast – an area with weather and water conditions that would present challenges far greater than in the Gulf of Mexico, where the nation’s worst oil spill took place last year.

“One of the things that we learned from Deepwater Horizon is if you don’t think through what is the worst-possible case, it’s difficult for you to plan on how much equipment you’ll need,” he said. “We had to turn on the oil boom manufacturers around the world to supply us. We had to employ thousands of fishing boats to go out there and do skimming operations.

“Although private industry may assert they’re adequately prepared to respond to a spill, we must also determine what response capability our Coast Guard and nation needs so we can mount an adequate response as exploration advances towards production,” he said.

Meanwhile, Think Progress Green reported yesterday that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is attacking President Obama for not doing enough in the Arctic. Speaking with the Des Moines Register, Santorum called for more drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge while blaming the protection of caribou to the nation’s insurance problems:

You’re worried about people being uninsured, why don’t you some drilling in Alaska, and make sure they’ve got jobs? You’re worried about the uninsured? I’ll get you insurance. You produce more oil, we’d have a stronger economy, a lot more people would be insured. I would expect that there are some here who say that we can’t do that because of the caribou. But don’t come and talk to me, well, let’s be cutting the uninsured.

Forget a massive oil spill. Forget climate change. When all other messaging fails, blame it on the caribou.

In an editorial interview with the Des Moines Register, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said that nowhere in the United States should be off limits to the oil and gas industry. He blamed caribou and President Obama for ruining the economy by blocking drilling in the “frozen,” lifeless Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In a remarkable pivot, Santorum then argued that if Big Oil were given free rein over the entire United States, the problems of our national health insurance system would be solved:

You’re worried about people being uninsured, why don’t you some drilling in Alaska, and make sure they’ve got jobs? You’re worried about the uninsured? I’ll get you insurance. You produce more oil, we’d have a stronger economy, a lot more people would be insured. I would expect that there are some here who say that we can’t do that because of the caribou. But don’t come and talk to me, well, let’s be cutting the uninsured. You cannot have it both ways. You have to look at what’s rational and reasonable. The president is an ideologue!

Watch it:

Despite the oft-repeated conservative myth, the Arctic refuge “provides habitat to a diverse array of wildlife including millions of migratory birds, caribou, three species of bears (polar, grizzly and black bears), wolves, Dall sheep, muskoxen, arctic and red foxes, wolverines, plus many more.” Drilling the refuge would do nothing for oil prices, do little for the economy outside of oil companies, destroy one of the last uniquely pristine places on this planet, and hasten the catastrophic collapse of our climate system.

Santorum’s fixation with caribou resembles the recent Tea Party fear that Obama is giving manatees dominion over man.

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As Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) work to craft comprehensive climate legislation that can overcome a fossil-fueled filibuster, swing vote Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is trying to dig the carbon hole deeper. Before climate policy had a chance of becoming reality, Murkowski claimed to recognize that global warming from fossil fuels is destroying Alaska. Now, she has continued down that path by demanding that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is “one of the must-haves“:

I’m still saying ANWR is one of the must-haves. You want to have me sit down at the table and talk about what a strong domestic production piece is, you have to be willing to talk to me about ANWR. Pretty simple.

Murkowski is increasingly sounding like an oil industry lobbyist, leading the effort to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing the Clean Air Act with respect to greenhouse pollution. Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act resolution is a blatant rejection of science and safety on behalf of her fossil industry contributors. This week, she praised Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-WV) two-year Clean Air Act moratorium, saying she is “hopeful that this bill will draw additional support and advance quickly.”

Only in the United States Senate could you find someone demand that a climate bill involve drilling in one of the last pristine places on earth. Murkowski is working to unleash the only two imminent threats to the remote and unique Arctic Refuge — global warming and oil drilling. Murkowski, it seems, is willing to destroy her state in order to save it.

In tonight’s debate, Palin suggested that the “$700 billion” the U.S. spends a year on imported oil (the figure is actually closer to $536 billion) could be replaced by domestic sources. She further claimed that Alaska’s “energy” supply (by which she means only oil) is helping America on the path to energy independence.

But the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler points out that “various government agencies” have concluded that “crude oil production could be increased at most between 1 and 3 million barrels per day, on top of the 5 million barrels a year [day] already produced domestically. The United States currently consumes about 20 million barrels annually [per day], so an expansion of domestic drilling would make barely a dent in that amount unless consumption also is reduced.”

Our guest bloggers are Daniel J. Weiss, a Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and James Kvaal, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

With the choice of Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) as his running mate, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is not backing down from oil drilling. Palin is a champion for drilling, the Bush-Cheney approach to energy policy that brought us $4.00-per-gallon gasoline and the rising threat of global warming.

Like McCain, Palin believes that oil drilling is the only solution to our energy problems. “I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can’t drill our way out of our problem,” she says. She supports more drilling in protected areas of the Outer Continental Shelf and the Alaska Natural Wildlife Refuge, once attacking McCain for his “close-mindedness on ANWR.”

But the Department of Energy believes that offshore drilling “would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030.” Moreover, about three-quarters of all the oil in public lands in the continental U.S. are already open to drilling – and yet only one quarter of this oil is under production. Opening the Arctic Refuge would cut gasoline prices by two cents in 17 years. For that, Palin would destroy the home of America’s native polar bears. Not even T. Boone Pickens still thinks we can drill our way out of this crisis.

Palin rejects clean renewable energy that is an alternative to oil. Earlier this month, she claimed that “alternative-energy solutions are far from imminent and would require more than 10 years to develop.”

Alaska has become the “poster state” for the threat of global warming as the climate gets hotter and dryer and sea levels rise. More than 100 towns are vulnerable due to eroding sea lines. Polar bears are threatened by the melting ice floas, and this month bears were spotted swimming as much as 50 miles offshore.

Nonetheless, like many other oil champions, Palin is skeptical of global warming. During her gubernatorial campaign, she said she was unconvinced about how much human emissions contribute to current global warming trends. Palin also opposes listing our polar bears as a threatened species because it could require action on climate change.

As Carl Pope of the Sierra Club says, “No one is closer to the oil industry than Governor Palin.” Sarah Palin has taken positions that would ensure a continuation of the Bush-Cheney energy policies. She supports drilling everywhere and ignores the need for binding reductions in global warming pollution even though her state is melting. The continuation of these policies will continue higher energy costs, more severe hurricanes and droughts, and despoiled natural treasures.

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After a presentation on opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, CNN anchor Ali Velshi hosted a discussion between Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ). Velshi started the interview by making the startling admission that Bachmann joined him on his expedition to northern Alaska:

Congressman [sic] Bachmann, I want to talk to you first about this because those pictures we just showed, we took from an airplane. You were with us on that airplane. You went up there to get a sense for yourself about the impact of drilling in ANWR.

Watch it:

During the interview, Velshi asked Bachmann what lesson she learned from their joint trip. Her response:

Ali, I came away with the idea that this is the most perfect place on the planet to drill.

Bachmann’s bizarre response — she also called the ecologically unique refuge the “most convenient, quickest place” to drill, despite also saying it is “permanently frozen in darkness three months of the year” — comes as no surprise, as she is one of the biggest boosters of Big Oil propaganda in Congress. Just in the past two months, she’s claimed that caribou love pipelines, falsely blamed Democrats for blocking renewable energy incentives, and repeated the lie about China drilling for oil off the Florida coast. In this segment, Bachmann introduces a new lie, claiming “this area was specifically set aside for drilling by President Jimmy Carter for drilling.”

This is simply false. As Carter explained in a 2000 New York Times column calling for expanded protections of Alaskan lands from drilling:

Then, even more than today, much attention was focused on high energy prices; oil companies — playing on Americans’ fears — sought the right to drill in protected areas. While the House held firm, the Senate forced a compromise, without ever putting the fate of the refuge to a vote. Thus, the law I signed 20 years ago did not permanently protect this Arctic wilderness. It did, however, block any oil company drilling until Congress votes otherwise. . . The simple fact is, drilling is inherently incompatible with wilderness.

Velshi did not question Bachmann about any of these false statements. Velshi also failed to mention global warming even once, despite the extreme warming taking place in northern Alaska, driving wildlife toward extinction and threatening a global climate meltdown.

Freshman representative Bachmann is a hard-line conservative funded primarily by right-wing organizations like the Club for Growth ($92,630), TCF Financial ($38,400), and Koch Industries ($17,500), the right-wing corporate polluter. She has also received $20,250 from right-wing billionaire Stanley Hubbard, one of the the top funders of Newt Gingrich’s “Drill Here, Drill Now” organization, American Solutions for Winning the Future (ASWF).

CNN’s campaign coverage continues to be funded by the coal industry front group American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).

UPDATE: Velshi’s Arctic Refuge piece first aired July 24, but he did not disclose that the trip was with a delegation of 11 conservative representatives led by Rep. John Boehner (R-OH). However, prior to the trip, he did say in a July 15 interview with Rep. Bachmann:

I should tell you, I’m hoping to join you on that trip this weekend. We’re still trying to work that out.

Evidently, his wish was granted.

At a summit on good jobs and clean air in Oakland, CA, yesterday, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa told labor and environmental activists that his union — representing 1.4 million workers across a broad array of careers — is rejecting the drill-drill-drill rhetoric of the conservative allies of Big Oil. Saying that we should not drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Hoffa embraced a future of jobs built on clean, renewable energy:

We are not going to drill our way out of the energy problems we are facing — not here and not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We must find a long-term approach that breaks our dependence on foreign oil by investing in the development of alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power.

Hoffa’s call on behalf of workers is echoing leaders of the environment, energy, and economic justice:

“If you’re in a hole, stop digging!” — Al Gore

“We can’t drill our way out!” — T. Boone Pickens

“We cannot drill and burn our way out of this problem. If we do, we will burn this planet!” — Van Jones

Hoffa’s rejection of drilling in the Arctic Refuge is a remarkable turnaround. From 2001 to 2005, the Teamsters led the charge in favor of opening the refuge, before top Teamsters lobbyist Jerry Hood became the head of the pro-drilling front group Arctic Power.

The day before, a coalition of “more than 3,000 environmental, community and labor advocates” led by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums rallied for “clean air and good jobs” at the Port of Oakland, the fourth busiest container port in the United States. They marched for a clean trucks program modelled after the coalition’s amazing success with the busiest port in America, the Port of Los Angeles. That landmark plan involved an “employee model” that mandates that the Port of Los Angeles deal only with trucking companies who employ their drivers, making it dramatically easier for the port to meet state and federal public health, environmental, and national security standards — and making it possible for the drivers to unionize. Shippers, trucking companies, and retailers continue to challenge this plan.

“Americans are suffering in this difficult economy,” a Teamster spokesperson told Gristmill’s Kate Sheppard. “[President Hoffa] really realized, like a lot of people have, that there needs to be a long-term energy solution.”

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UPDATE: At Daily Kos, TomP writes, “Great news for all of us who seek a Blue/Green Alliance!”

At the Compass, Heather Moyer says, “The Sierra Club is happy to stand with labor and encourage clean energy, which will boost the economy and create jobs.”

At Brightbend, Raj Shukla concludes, “Politics, economics and ecology all converge in one answer — no fossil fuels for energy.”

UPDATE II: At the Huffington Post, Doug Kendall writes about the Senate Judiciary testimony on the Supreme Court Exxon Valdez damages ruling of Osa Schultz, “an Alaska fisherwoman and remarkably energetic small-business entrepreneur from the coastal town of Cordova. She and her husband were partners in a thriving fishing cooperative that nearly went bankrupt after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill”:

Osa isn’t an environmental activist by choice or trade; this was one of her first visits to Washington. And she has long been open, like many Alaskans, to the development of drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, but now she’s not so sure. Much like Teamsters President Jim Hoffa, she recognizes that drilling our way out of a dangerous addiction to oil is both impossible and pointless, and is directly tied to the mindset that caused such devastating results in her community.