At a House Natural Resources Committee hearing last week, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) snapped at Dr. Douglas Brinkley, a professor at Rice University. Young, who fervently advocates oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, took offense at some of Brinkley’s remarks.
“[I]t’s always been called the Arctic Refuge until the oil lobby started calling it ANWR because it sounds like ANWR’s the dot or some country in the Middle East,” said Dr. Brinkley. “Do you want to drill ANWR? Yes. Do you want to molest Eisenhower’s great wildlife reserve? No. So it’s the way the issues frame.”
And then the following exchange:
Don Young: “I — I will tell you: If you ever want to see an exercise in futility, it’s this hearing. And I call it garbage, Dr. Rice, that comes from the mouth — ”
Brinkley: “Dr. Brinkley. Rice is a university.”
Young: “Well, OK…[I’ll] call you anything I want while you sat in that chair.”
Brinkley: “Pardon?”
Young: “You just be quiet, you just be quiet.”
Brinkley: “You don’t own me. I pay your salary.”
Young has been Alaska’s sole congressperson since 1973.
