Iowa Sierrans have been instrumental in every win in the Arctic and we
have the best chance now of finally permanently protecting the Coastal
Plain.  Salazar has not ruled yet on the Arctic and it's looking like he
might leave office without doing so.  The pressure has to be on President
Obama so please everyone do what Sierrans do best--write, call or email. 
Phyllis
Wow. February was a very good month for America's Arctic. 
Last month, 11 million acres of Arctic wild lands in Western Alaska were
protected, keeping over 200 million barrels of climate-disrupting oil in
the ground. Tens of thousands of people converged on the White House to
demand that the President move away from oil drilling and towards climate
solutions. Shell Oil finally announced that it would not be able to drill
for oil in the fragile Polar Bear Seas in 2013.
I almost can’t believe I get to say this, but we're starting to win the
fight to permanently protect America’s Arctic and making real progress to
fix the climate crisis. 
Keep the momentum going. Tell President Obama to protect special areas of
the Arctic Refuge and refuse Shell Oil's future attempts to drill in the
Polar Bear Seas.
The fight isn't over. Even though Shell has temporarily backed down from
drilling in the Arctic, Big Oil’s friends in Congress haven’t stopped
pushing for more dirty and dangerous fossil fuel extraction.
Just last week, Senator Lisa Murkowski released her energy plan, which
called for drilling in the Polar Bear Seas and the Arctic refuge, as well
as on both the east and west coast of the continental U.S., immediate
approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, and cutting investments in
renewable energy.
This shows that Big Oil isn't going to back down easily, and neither can
we. Send a message to President Obama today.
We’ve won some key protections for America’s Arctic this month, but
there's so much more to do. Right now, President Obama and Secretary of
the Interior Ken Salazar are deciding whether or not to recommend that
the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge be protected permanently from
drilling. 
Tell President Obama to take bold leadership by permanently protecting
the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge, and by letting Big Oil know it
can't drill in the Polar Bear Seas. 
Thanks to millions of calls, emails and letters from people like you,
America's Arctic is safer from drilling now than it was just a month ago.
Now it's more important than ever to keep this fight going.
Thank you for everything you do for our wild places,
Dan Ritzman
Sierra Club Arctic Campaign Director
P.S. We want to make sure the Obama administration knows how important
the Arctic is to Americans. Forward this alert to your friends and
colleagues, or share it on Facebook and Twitter:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]

Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information:
http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp

To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see:
 http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp