A recent Sen­ate pro­posal to write every Amer­i­can a $100 check to off­set high gaso­line prices also includes another rider to open the Arc­tic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling. A recent Reuters arti­cle quickly sheds some light on the thought process behind this legislation:

House Speaker Den­nis Hastert told reporters after a meet­ing with Exxon­Mo­bil Chair­man and CEO Rex Tiller­son that any con­sumer rebates would have to be off­set by drilling in Alaska.

It’s nice to see that our law­mak­ers are seek­ing out such author­i­ta­tive, unbi­ased sources of infor­ma­tion to aid in their decision-making.