It is SO good to hear of a victory...(I hope it is) Thanks for sending.
Joyce Naffier

On Thu, 13 Mar 2003 14:07:20 EST erin jordahl IA <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
> Congratulations, Arctic Activists!
>
> Â  Â Â  As of 8pm last night, the Iowa Arctic campaign is
> a victory!  The budget bill that Jim Nussle's
> committee sent to the floor of the House does *not*
> include for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
> Refuge.
>
>      You shoud all feel very proud of yourselves.  The
> press conference this morning made note of yesterday's
> events, as well as the 100th Anniversary of the
> National Wildlife Refuge System.
>
> Â  Â Â  You can find an update on the overall Arctic
> situation below... that first paragraph is our work
> here in Iowa, and it was crucial.   The threat now
> moves to the Resource committee... to whom Nussle
> essentially punted the ball.  He could have done
> better, but he also could have done much worse.  The
> last minute action to remove drilling provisions is
> likely more than anything a sign of your effective
> work in his home district.Â
>
> Congratulations!
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Jay Heeter
>
> The budget resolution passed by the House Budget
> Committee Wednesday night did not include language
> endorsing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
> Refuge.  Committee Chairman Nussle, for the third year
> in a row, declined to include assumptions of drilling
> revenue in the resolution, which provides establishes
> the broad  framework for the annual spending and tax
> bills.
>
> Nevertheless, the threat to the Refuge looms large in
> the House of Representatives. The budget resolution
> includes across the board spending cuts, and the House
> Resources Committee has broad latitude to meet this
> target. Resources Chairman Richard Pombo has made no
> secret of his intention to pursue Arctic drilling, and
> today presided over a hearing on separate legislation
> to open the Arctic Refuge.
>
> The conservation community, with the strong backing of
> the American people, will continue to fight to protect
> the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge every step of the
> way.   Any attempt to sneak Arctic Refuge drilling
> into the budget process is a backdoor maneuver that
> has nothing to do with the federal budget, and
> everything to do with the influence of the oil lobby
> in Washington, DC.
>
> A bipartisan majority in the Senate rejected Arctic
> drilling last year, and a growing and increasingly
> vocal chorus of voices from both sides of the aisle in
> both houses of Congress is standing up to protect the
> Refuge. It makes no sense to destroy one of our last,
> pristine wild places for what the USGS says would be
> less than six months' worth of oil that even the oil
> industry admits wouldn't reach consumers for ten
> years.
>
> This bipartisan consensus in Congress is reflecting
> the will of the vast majority of the American people.
> A new bipartisan poll has found that by an
> overwhelming majority -- 62% versus 30% -- of the
> American public remains opposed to oil drilling in the
> Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and rejects the idea
> that impending war with Iraq justifies opening this
> rare treasure to oil drilling.
>
> Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will
> do almost nothing to address our reliance on imported
> oil. We simply can’t drill our way to energy
> independence. The U.S. uses 25 percent of all the oil
> consumed in the world each year, but we have a scant
> three percent of the world’s oil reserves within our
> borders.
>
> The Department of Energy has estimated that without
> drilling in the Arctic Refuge, we’ll import 62 percent
> of our oil in the year 2020.  And if we do drill?  The
> Department of Energy says we’ll still be importing 60
> percent of our oil in 2020.
>
> In good times and in bad, in war and in peace,
> Americans have steadfastly protected the unequaled
> places that make this country special. America will be
> a poorer nation if we fail to permanently protect a
> place as magnificent as the Arctic National Wildlife
> Refuge.Â
>
> Article Published: Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 3:06:19
> AM AKST
>
>
>
> ANWR divides Congress
> By SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington Bureau
> WASHINGTON--U.S. House and Senate budget writers
> revealed opposing decisions Wednesday on whether to
> count on revenues from selling oil leases in the
> Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in future years.
>
> The House committee writing the annual budget
> resolution said "no" to the idea, while the Senate
> committee said "yes."
>
> If the Senate's approach wins, it could ease the way
> to oil drilling in the refuge's coastal plain by
> reducing the vote threshold necessary for eventual
> Senate passage. If the House approach sticks,
> promoters of drilling would need at least 60 votes,
> rather than 51, to stop the filibusters threatened by
> several senators.
>
> The House Budget Committee's chairman, Rep. Jim
> Nussle, R-Iowa, unveiled his preference in the
> proposed budget resolution released Wednesday. The
> committee began considering amendments Wednesday and
> was expected to work late into the night, but no
> proposals to add ANWR revenue language had been seen
> as of early evening.
>
>
>
> OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION
>
> 3/13/2003
> - Sorlie wins Iditarod
> - Board OKs predator control
> - Native leaders question Leman on state's priorities
> - Board grants early school start
> - Young open to ideas for transit funding
> - Intense search turns up no track of missing brothers
>
> - Midwest Magic
> - Audience gets into cyber theater
> - Healy dance troupe gains Fairbanks choreographer
> - Watercolorists cover a wide field in 'Past and
> Pasture'
> - McGilvray to lead singing workshops of Winter
> Edition
> - District to mull potential program cuts
> - Father charged in sex abuse of girl
> - Borough Assembly to discuss funding junkyard cleanup
>
> - Police Report
> - Correction
> - Business license hike challenged
> - House OKs driving regulations
> - Teachers housing proposal advances
> - U.S. attorney reopens investigation into Alaska
> Airlines crash
> - Longevity bonus cut likely to face stiff opposition
> - More Alpine oil fields may be on the horizon
> - Interior shivers beneath wintry blast
>
>
>
> Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., and a House Budget
> Committee member, said last week that he asked Nussle
> to keep the ANWR language out of the committee's
> version. Shays opposes ANWR drilling.
>
> Across the Capitol grounds Wednesday afternoon, the
> Senate Budget Committee's chairman, Sen. Don Nickles,
> R-Okla., opened his committee hearing on the budget
> resolution. His version contains a proposal to count
> on $2.15 billion in revenue from ANWR between 2004 and
> 2013. No amendments were expected until today.
>
> Nickles' proposal, known as the "chairman's mark,"
> would order the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
> Committee to create legislation that would produce the
> $2.15 billion. The money would "decrease outlays,"
> i.e., reduce federal spending from general funds.
>
> "The reconciled savings are consistent with opening up
> the 1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
> for oil exploration and production in order to
> decrease our dependence on foreign oil," according to
> a summary of Nickles' proposal.
>
> The legislation ordered up from the Energy committee
> would be considered a "reconciliation" bill because it
> would eliminate an existing federal law (prohibiting
> oil leasing on ANWR's coastal plain) in order to
> "reconcile" statutes with the budget resolution.
>
> Reconciliation bills are not subject to a filibuster
> and thus can be passed with 51 votes in the
> Republican-controlled but still closely divided
> Senate.
>
> The House, which is under more firm Republican
> control, approved drilling in ANWR in 2001 and
> supporters expect it to do the same this year.
> Filibusters are not permitted under the House rules,
> so a reconciliation bill would face a simple majority
> vote in the House as well.
>
> The question of the moment, though, is whether the
> stage will be set for that reconciliation bill.
>
> Presumably, a senator on Nickles' Budget committee
> today could propose an amendment to strike the ANWR
> language. However, the Republicans on the committee
> are all firm supporters of ANWR drilling, and they
> have a majority. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and an
> ANWR drilling opponent, served on the committee in
> recent years but moved off at the start of this
> session.
>
> Nickles said Wednesday he hopes to have his proposal
> on the Senate floor by next week.
>
> So if the ANWR language sticks in Nickles' bill while
> the House bill remains clear of it through final
> passage, the difference will be resolved in a
> conference committee. Members there are chosen by the
> House and Senate leadership, both of which support
> ANWR drilling.
>
> The conference committee will work out a final
> version, which must be accepted by both houses.
> Nickles said Wednesday he hopes to meet the April 15
> deadline Congress has set for itself for completion of
> that work.
>
> President Bush also backs ANWR drilling.
>
> Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton delivered that
> message to the House Resources Committee Wednesday
> morning. The committee is considering separate
> legislation to open ANWR, similar to that passed by
> the House in 2001.
>
> "It is an area of flat, white nothingness," Norton
> said while vowing to counter advertising from
> environmental groups.
>
> Alaska already has 140 million acres--an area the size
> of California and New York together--set aside for
> conservation, she said. The 1.5-million-acre coastal
> plain contains more oil alone than most of the western
> United States, she said. It would be developed with
> the best modern technology--movable pads and ice
> roads--under the most strict rules in the world.
>
> "You look at the standards in other countries ... they
> are far less stringent that what America would impose
> in ANWR," she said.
>
> Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., took issue with Norton's
> characterization of ANWR's wilderness value.
>
> "It may not have the 300-foot sequoias, it may not
> have the deep canyons of the Grand Canyon, but it does
> have values that the American people have come to
> prize," Miller said.
>
> Americans will not support compromising those values
> when the government is doing so little to reduce
> demand for petroleum, Miller said.
>
> "You want to put it in a car that gets 12 miles per
> gallon," he said. "It doesn't make any sense."
>
> Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, said Congress intended that
> the area be developed when it exempted the coastal
> plain from the wilderness designation it applied to 8
> million other acres in ANWR in 1980.
>
> "Scoop Jackson did this, Mo Udall did this, and they
> agreed to this," Young said, referring to the former
> senator from Washington and representative from
> Arizona, both Democrats.
>
> He also said Congress should at least let Native
> corporations drill. The Arctic Slope Regional Corp.
> obtained mineral rights on 90,000 acres inside the
> refuge boundary in a mid-'80s land swap, but the deal
> prohibits them from drilling unless Congress opens the
> entire area.
>
> "The forked tongue of the white man is at work again,"
> Young said. "To do this to the Native people up there
> is just wrong."
>
> Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., and the Resources
> committee chairman, said he wants to hold a field
> hearing on the issue in Kaktovik, the village on
> Barter Island just north of the refuge. The village
> corporation owns the surface overlying the acreage on
> which ASRC holds mineral rights and also has advocated
> drilling.
>
> Pombo said he would hold the hearing to consider not
> just the development bill but also a rival proposal
> from Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., that would make the
> coastal plain an official wilderness area and thus
> off-limits to drilling.
>
> "I thank you for the hearing," Markey responded. "I
> just wish it would be held before we have a markup of
> the bill here in the committee. I know that that isn't
> going to happen because there has already been a
> decision by the majority that they want to drill in
> the refuge."
>
> Washington, D.C., reporter Sam Bishop can be reached
> at [log in to unmask] or (202) 662-8721.
>
>
>
> =====
>
> 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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