Forwarded by Jane Clark at [log in to unmask]

ACTION ALERT: OPPOSE ARCTIC REFUGE DRILLING RIDER TO LABOR HHS

Here we go again! Capitalizing on the American people's energy woes, Big
Oil
's friends in Congress, led by Senators Lott and Murkowski, plan to attach
their so-called "National Energy Security Act of 2000" (S.2557) as an
amendment to the Labor Health and Human Services and Education
Appropriations bill. This amendment could come up for a vote TUESDAY, 6/27.
Please call your Senators and ask them to oppose S.2557

Under the guise of addressing the recent gas price spike, S.2557 would roll
back environmental protections and offer a range of tax breaks and
giveaways
for the oil, coal, and nuclear industries.  Most egregiously, the bill
would
mandate oil drilling in America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge!

ACTION NEEDED: Call your Senators (Capitol Switchboard: 202/224-3121)
and ask them to oppose S.2557 and any amendment to the Labor HHS
Appropriations bill that would mandate drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge.  Urge them to instead cosponsor legislation introduced by
Senator William Roth (S.867) that will forever safeguard the Arctic
National
Wildlife Refuge coastal plain and the spectacular wildlife that depend on
it.

Please forward this Action Alert to other groups and individuals that care
about having a sound energy policy that does not sacrifice our last
pristine
wilderness areas.

WHAT WOULD S.2557 DO?:
S.2557 would allow an industrial drift net of development across the entire
1.5 million-acre coastal plain, which is the last 5 percent of Alaska's
vast
North Slope not already open to oil exploration and development.  Drilling
the Arctic Refuge would be a calamity, as shortsighted as damming the Grand
Canyon for hydropower or tap Old Faithful for geothermal energy.

In addition, S. 2557 would offer a range of gifts and giveaways for
polluting fossil fuel industries.  The bill would cut out public hearings
for Nuclear Regulatory Commission actions, revive a coal-liquefaction
program, and offer huge new tax breaks and subsidies to oil and gas
producers.

America does need a sound national energy policy, but we simply can't drill
our way to lower prices or energy independence, even if we plundered every
National Park, National Wildlife Refuge, and coastline.

BACKGROUND:
The Arctic Refuge is an incomparable wilderness.  No other conservation
unit
in North America protects the complete range of Arctic ecosystems.  Known
as
"America's Serengeti," the Arctic Refuge coastal plain is also the site of
one of the continent's most spectacular wildlife spectacles: the annual
aggregation of nearly 130,000 caribou that rely on the vegetation rich
coastal tundra as a nursery and prime foraging area. The Gwich'in people of
Alaska and Canada depend upon the caribou herd for their culture and
subsistence lifestyle. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the
coastal plain is also America's most important on-shore denning habitat for
polar bears, home to millions of migratory birds, rare musk oxen, wolves,
and grizzlies.

Here are some hard cold facts that Big Oil backers would like you to
ignore:

- The largest oil discovery in U.S. history actually had no impact on U.S.
prices.  In fact, just four years after Alaska's Prudhoe Bay field came on
line in 1977, gas prices nearly doubled, jumping from 59 cents per gallon
to
an average of $1.19 by 1980.  In short, increasing U.S. production by more
than 1 million barrels a day did nothing to prevent an OPEC-induced price
spike.  Estimates for how much oil might lie beneath the Arctic Refuge
actually pale in comparison to Prudhoe Bay.  The most recent projection
from
the U.S. Geological Survey was for 3.2 billion barrels of economically
recoverable oil, or the equivalent of less than six months worth of U.S.
consumption.

- Alaska oil is being shipped to China and other Asian countries.  That's
because Senator Murkowski led congressional efforts to lift the Alaska oil
export ban in 1995.  Since then, between 50-90,000 barrels a day has been
shipped overseas.  Overall, the U.S. exports 1 million barrels a day in
crude and refined petroleum products.  Were drilling allowed in the Arctic
Refuge, nothing would require the oil companies to keep that oil here in
the
U.S.

- Raising the fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks would save far more
oil than what might lie beneath the Arctic Refuge.  As long as the United
States is dependent on oil it will be dependent, to a great extent, on
foreign oil.  However, raising fuel economy standards would save more oil
than we would import from the Persian Gulf and what is optimistically
projected to be in the Arctic Refuge and offshore California.  Honda and
Toyota are already marketing cars that can go up to 850 miles on a single
tank of gaS.2557

- Oil industry profits have increased by 500 percent in recent months.  The
Federal Trade Commission may not find anything illegal about the prices the
oil companies are charging, but there's little doubt that the champagne
corks are popping at Exxon.  According to Public Citizen, the oil
industry's
first-quarter profits in 2000 are up nearly 500 percent over the same
period
in 1999. (To see a complete report, go to www.publiccitizen.org)

forwarded by Vicky Hoover
Alaska Task Force staff
(415)977-5527

For more details on the Senate action expected, call Melinda Pierce, Sierra
Club
Public Lands Team  202-675-7912; [log in to unmask]

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