Calls to Representatives needed NOW!!!  With elections in November some
may actually listen.  Phyllis Mains
Jim Nussle 202-225-2911; Jim Leach 202-225-6576; Leonard Boswell
202-225-3806; Tom Latham 202-225-5476; Steve King 202-225-4428  ( my call
to King's office resulted in an augment with the staffer who cited high
gas prices --when I suggested alternatives like ethanol that would help
Iowa she said "that would take too long"  DUH like drilling in the Refuge
would help immediately?
 
Another bill seeks to open ANWR 
FILIBUSTER: New proposal deals only with oil drilling in the refuge. 
By LIZ RUSKIN
Anchorage Daily News 
Published: May 23, 2006 
Last Modified: May 23, 2006 at 02:27 AM 

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the House Resources Committee, Rep. Richard
Pombo, has filed another bill to accomplish what so many prior bills have
failed to do: open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. 

Recent strategies to get an ANWR bill through a reluctant Senate have
involved mixed marriages -- ANWR and the budget or ANWR and the defense
bill. Pombo's latest proposal, on the other hand, is a stand-alone bill
dealing only with ANWR. That leaves it wide open to filibuster in the
Senate.

"There's always the chance that Sen. (Ted) Stevens and other like-minded
senators could get the three votes they need to move forward and pass it
with a filibuster-proof majority," said Brian Kennedy, spokesman for
Pombo, R-Calif.

The Republican-dominated House has passed ANWR legislation repeatedly in
the last five years, with the help of about 30 Democrats. A majority of
senators has also voted to drill in the refuge, but Stevens and Sen. Lisa
Murkowski, R-Alaska, have fallen a few votes short of the 60 they need to
block a filibuster, a fatal procedural delay. 

ANWR, drilling proponents note, could produce a million barrels of oil a
day. Environmentalists say the amount is insignificant when you consider
that the United States is already burning nearly 21 million barrels a
day.

Melinda Pierce, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, said she's not surprised
to see the Republicans trot out an ANWR bill just before Memorial Day
weekend and the start of the so-called summer driving season. It's an
attempt to show that they are doing something about high gas prices, she
said.

"I think it's a bit of red meat for their base," she said. Kennedy
acknowledged the bill has a political purpose. "It puts the House on
record yet again and shows the American public that yet again the
Republican majority is trying to do something about energy supply," he
said.

The House is likely to debate the bill this week, maybe Thursday.

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