Republicans Angered by Bush's Priorities

News and Opinion for Democrats Against Bush -- Part II

Republicans Angered by Bush's Priorities

'"To me, it doesn't make sense," said Carl Rappold, 51, a rancher on the Front who has always voted Republican but said he will not vote again for Bush. "We got all these species clustered in a little bit of space. It is almost like a last stand. And now we are going to develop it for a handful of gas?"'

washingtonpost.com

Talk of Gas Drilling Splits Pro-Bush Factions in West

By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 4, 2003; Page A01

The complete article may be purchased from the Washington Post archives at-- http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/search.html?nav=left

Excerpt--

CHOTEAU, Mont. -- The Great Plains smack into the Rockies just west of here. The collision of flatness and verticality results in the Rocky Mountain Front, the only place in the West where large numbers of grizzlies, elk and bighorn sheep still wander down out of the mountains and take their leisure on the grassy plain.

Seven years ago, the U.S. Forest Service ruled that the Front deserved "special attention" and halted new oil and gas leasing. Hunters, hikers and assorted lovers of this 100-mile-long stretch of wildernessbreathed a collective sigh of relief. ...

But now, with natural gas prices up sharply and with President Bush making domestic energy production a national security priority, the fight over the Front is back on. Although the Forest Service's ban on new leases remains in effect, the Bureau of Land Management is reviewing plans by three companies with existing leases to extract gas from eight wells. ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59945-2003Nov3.html

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