Democrats don't want to drill anywhere. They are willing to let other countries do the drilling and then sell the oil to us for $140per barrel. The Chinese are drilling off of Florida and the Russians want to drill in the artic. Why do the Democrats not want the US to drill using our advanced technology? Do they want the US economy to tank? Here is an article from Drudge about what one of our primary enemies, Russia, is planning:

Russia's Putin tours new rig in Arctic oil drive

Jul 11 01:52 PM US/Eastern







Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday toured a new Arctic oil rig intended to boost Moscow's position in the intensifying competition for northern energy reserves.
Putin also met ministers and top oil executives in the Severodvinsk shipyard to discuss prospects for developing more Arctic fields, which are estimated to contain up to a quarter of Russia's proven oil and gas reserves.

"The Arctic zone is a guarantee of Russia's economic power. Oil, gas, gold, diamonds and phosphates -- it's all there," Artur Chilingarov, a member of parliament who is also an Arctic explorer, told AFP before the meeting.

"We need to find new oil fields ... We need to go offshore," he said.

Officials said the rig, which is expected to be completed in 2010, is the first in the world able to operate in temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit) and withstand the impact of pack ice.

"Building technology to tap offshore Arctic reserves is a priority for our civilian production," read a statement from the rig's constructor, Sevmash, a secretive plant in northern Russia that also builds nuclear submarines.

Sevmash emphasised the rig's ability to operate in "extreme conditions."

The fragile Arctic environment and disputed boundaries between Canada, Norway and Russia make oil exploration in the region controversial. Russia says it has to drill in the Arctic as existing oil fields are drying up.

The Arctic region is believed to contain 100 billion barrels of oil, according to US official data, and is increasingly seen by the industry as a key source to keep pace with soaring demand amid record-high oil prices.

But environmentalists say there is currently no effective way of dealing with an oil spill in such icy conditions and warn about the impact that drilling will have on Arctic wildlife such as polar bears and whales.

At Friday's meeting, Putin said Russia's declining oil production meant the industry was at a "critical juncture" and proposed to cut taxes and slash bureaucracy to encourage new oil development in Arctic regions.

"The prospects are good but some tendencies worry us. The rate of growth of production has gone down ... In the first quarter of this year, production even declined 0.3 percent," Putin told the assembled ministers and oil executives.

The new Prirazlomnaya rig was ordered by state-controlled energy giant Gazprom for its oil field of the same name in the Arctic Ocean but the project has been delayed by design and financing problems.

Sevmash said it hoped to use the experience to build infrastructure for other planned Arctic projects such as the Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea and oil fields off the coast of the Yamal peninsula in Siberia.

The base of the rig measures 126 by 126 metres (413 by 413 feet) and it can house up to 200 workers. Once completed, the rig will be dragged by tug boats hundreds of kilometres (miles) from the shipyard to the oil field.

The Sevmash plant is in the town of Severodvinsk, a former prison camp and Russia's largest shipyard, located some 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) north of Moscow on the White Sea, a gateway to the Arctic Ocean.

Somehow I doubt that Putin is concerned about what happens to polar bears. I feel confident that he would express some concern for polar bears in support of US environmentalists in their efforts to destroy the economy of the US, a goal Putin also embraces.