When will NO mean NO?
"It's not over until we win."
-Senator Ted Stevens (AK) after Senate Vote.
Despite exclusion by the Senate earlier this month,
the White House is turning to the House to address
the possibility of drilling. "We continue to press
about ANWR because that one small spot is believed to
have the ability to produce more oil than the entire
state of Texas," Norton said at the annual meeting
of the National Wildlife Federation.
- John Heilprin, AP/Anchorage Daily News, March 30
This is an urgent request for your phone calls and
faxes to the U.S. House of Representatives to protect
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge yet again. Despite
the Senate's 52-48 bipartisan rejection of Arctic
drilling on March 19, the House continues to push its drilling
plans through every available vehicle.
The latest attack comes in the House energy bill,
which the House Resources Committee passed April 2. The
measure will probably come to the House floor sometime
next week. Among its many damaging provisions, the
bill would open the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.
Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA), Nancy Johnson (R-CT), and
others will offer an amendment on the floor next week to
strike the Arctic Refuge provisions. We can't be sure which
day the vote will come, but House leaders have vowed
to pass an energy bill before they leave for their
spring recess April 11. Two years ago, the House
narrowly approved an energy bill that would have opened the
Arctic to drilling. We expect the vote to be very
close this time as well and we can't afford to take even
a single vote for granted. Drilling proponents are
applying heavy pressure on swing members.
Conservationists are pushing back just as hard.
Because of the accelerated timetable for this
legislation, we urgently need you to call your member of Congress
NOW! You can reach your representative through the
Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. Please make your
call today! We've listed talking points below.
Or call toll free 1-877-703-9491
It will help us in this immensely in this effort if
you will let us know by email
([log in to unmask]) what
you hear when you phone your Representative.
If you are unable to call, you can send a fax to your
representative immediately from
http://capwiz.com/awc/issues/alert/?alertid=1831006
**************************************
BACKGROUND
Despite the Senate's bipartisan 52-48 vote to strip
Arctic drilling out of the federal budget for 2004,
drilling proponents continue to press to open the
Arctic Refuge through other bills. The latest threat comes
in the energy bills being considered in both houses
right now. The House's version would open the Refuge
to oil and gas leasing.
Make no mistake: this bill poses a grave threat to
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Senate will
mark up its own version of the bill next week. In its
current form, the Senate bill does not contain Arctic
drilling language, but the House passes an Arctic
drilling provision, then a House-Senate conference convened
to reconcile differences in the two measures could
decide to include drilling in the final bill.
INCOMPARABLE HABITAT AND WILDERNESS
The rolling tundra of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain
with the snow-capped Brooks Range in the background
is a breathtaking sight. The Refuge is prized the
world over for its wildness, beauty, and the incomparable
habitat it provides to arctic wildlife, including
wolves, grizzlies, caribou and millions of migrating birds.
It is also the subject of an intense lobbying campaign
by the oil industry.
Oil exploration and drilling in the Arctic will ruin
one of our last great wild places, all for what the
U.S. Geological Survey concedes is less oil than the
U.S. uses in six months, and which wouldn't get here
for 10 years or more. Moreover, the Energy Information
Administration has concluded that drilling in the
Refuge would only reduce American dependence on oil imports
from a projected 62% of our total oil supply in 2020
to 60% at peak production.
The energy bill the House is now considering is very
similar to HR 4, the ill-conceived legislation that
passed the House in August 2001. In addition to Arctic
drilling, the bill would extend massive subsidies to
the fossil fuels industries. Other provisions seek
to "expedite" the development of energy projects on
federal lands, almost certainly at the expense of
environmental values.
In fact, throughout the bill, existing laws and
policies designed to protect environmental values are labeled
as "impediments" and "restrictions" on energy
development.
Sacrificing our environment in order to make it easier
for energy companies to exploit publicly owned
resources should not be the foundation of an energy policy for
the 21st century. We need an energy policy that
protects our wild places and invests more in cleaner, safer,
renewable sources of energy.
***********************************
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Call Now!
Phone calls are the most helpful action you can take
because there is so little time. Please use the
talking points below when you call. The number for the House
switchboard, again, is 202-224-3121. Or toll free
1-877-703-9491
If you can't call, you can send a fax to your
representative immediately from
http://capwiz.com/awc/issues/alert/?alertid=1831006
.
Thank you for helping us, once again, protect the
incomparable Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
To find the fax number for your member of the House
of Representatives, go to
http://capwiz.com/awc/dbq/officials/
***********************************
TALKING POINTS
When you call your congressional office, simply tell
the person who answers the phone that you'd like to
provide your Representative your opinion about the
Energy Bill. That person will take a message and may
also be keeping a tally of calls. Please express these
major points:
1. Please ask the Representative to support the
amendment to the energy bill that will protect the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling.
2. The Arctic Refuge is an incomparable wilderness
and important wildlife habitat.
3. Oil development will do little for American energy
security; we need an energy policy that protects wild
places and invests more in cleaner, safer, renewable
energy sources;
***************************************
SAMPLE LETTER:
Dear Representative:
I am very concerned about the attempt to include a
proposal to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge in the energy legislation now under consideration in
the House. A bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate
last spring soundly defeated a provision to drill in
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And the Senate
defeated Arctic drilling again less than two weeks
ago. Those votes reflected the will of the solid
majority of the American public that strongly supports
protecting the Arctic Refuge. The House should stay the course
and reject attempts to drill the Arctic now.
We need an energy policy that protects our wild places
and invests more in cleaner, safer, renewable sources
of energy. Drilling in the Arctic will ruin one of
our last great wild places. But it will do nothing
to increase national security or reduce our dependence
on imported oil. The U.S. Geological Survey concedes
that the Refuge likely holds less oil than the U.S.
uses in six months and it wouldn't reach consumers
for 10 years or more. Moreover, The Energy Information
Administration has concluded that drilling in the
Refuge would only reduce America's dependence on imported
oil from a projected 62% of our total supply in 2020
to 60% at peak production.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has long been
recognized as a place too special to sacrifice for short-term
gain. For more than thirty years the oil industry has
tried to open it to development. Thankfully, Senators
throughout the past three decades have refused to
yield to the industry's arguments, despite international
wars, rising gas prices and budget deficits. I look
to you to for such far-sighted leadership. I urge you
to support the amendment to strike Arctic Refuge oil
drilling from the Energy Bill.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
*******************************************
You can take action on this alert via the web at:
http://ga1.org/campaign/house_arctic/xd6g85207mi6
We encourage you to take action by April 11, 2003
Despite Senate Vote, House To Push for Arctic Drilling
=====
Jay Heeter
Alaska Coalition of Iowa
2010 E. 38th Street, Suite 204
Davenport, IA 52807-1133
(563) 359-6395 office
(919) 641-6903 cell
www.alaskacoalition.org
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