Forwarded by Jane Clark

AP Washington
01/10/2001


Clinton Won't Name Refuge Monument

by JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton will leave office this month without
making the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska a national monument,
the White House announced Wednesday.

The Arctic refuge, known commonly as ANWR, has an abundance of migrating
birds, polar bears, musk oxen, caribou, grizzly bears and other wildlife.
Its 120-mile-long coastal plain is believed to have large oil reserves as
well.

Environmentalists have pressed Clinton to declare monument status for the
coastal plain to ensure its permanent protection from oil development. Both
President-elect Bush and Vice President-elect Dick Cheney have backgrounds
in the oil industry, and Bush has made drilling in the reserve a major part
of his proposed energy plan.

Using the authority of the 1906 Antiquities Act, Clinton has created a
dozen
federal monuments this year by executive order.

''We believe, after consulting with our environmental team, that ANWR has
something that some of the other areas we looked at does not have, ...
legislative protective status, which is higher than that conferred to
monuments,'' White House spokesman Jake Siewert said.

Monument designation provides increased protection against development.
Such
protection already is written into law for the ANWR, Siewert said,
legislation from the Carter administration that specifically prevents oil
drilling.

Lawmakers can enact legislation to allow development, but ''it would be
very
hard to open it up to drilling given the narrow split that exists in
Congress,'' Siewert said.

The Senate is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, with Cheney's
constitutional tie-breaking vote as the Senate's presiding office the only
difference. The GOP commands a small majority in the House.

If the president gave out monument status, the next president alone could
try to reverse it, Siewert said. This way, ''They're going to have to go
through Congress to do it, and we don't think Congress would be wise to
open
that area to drilling,'' he said.

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On the Net: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:
http://www.r7.fws.gov/nwr/arctic/arctic.html

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