As a result of the Nov. 2 election, the beleagured coastal plain of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is more threatened than ever.

As Vivian Newman wrote:
Number One: Please do not speak of ANWR (the industry term) but rather the
Arctic Refuge if you must use shorthand.
Number Two -- what the hell difference does it make how much oil is there,
it is still only a small part of the picture - the real point is that this
is a stop-gap measure amd we could just go around the world  destroying
every damn habitat, terrestrial and marine, and still have to face the music
with not a damn thing left to make life worth living.

Defend the Arctic Refuge: Get Ready!

A Winning Strategy

  The polling places had hardly closed on Nov. 2 before the Bush
Administration began crowing of an alleged mandate to drill in the Arctic.
Media reports egged them on with predictions that with Republicans in
control of the Senate by a margin of 55-45, they will finally muscle Arctic
drilling through the Senate--the body that defeated drilling in 2003 by a
vote of 52-48.

  This is truly counting their chickens before they hatch.  Recognizing the
broad opposition to drilling in this pristine, remote area of northeast
Alaska, and without the 60 votes needed to stop a filibuster, Senate
leaders plan to use the budget process to slip Arctic drilling revenues
into the Federal Budget resolution (which can't be filibustered) early in
2005.  And here we have a good chance to stop them-as we have always
stopped them before!

  In the past, House Budget Chairman Jim Nussle (R-IA) has declined to use
his budget as a vehicle to move Arctic drilling.  He supports opening the
Arctic and has voted to do so in the energy bill, but he has always kept his
budget clean.  We must appeal to him to keep up that worthy stance.

  Some other moderate Republicans who can help on the House side are Reps.
Christopher Shays and Nancy Johnson (CT), and Charles Bass (NH).

  In the Senate the spotlight is on the new Chairman of the Budget
Committee Judd Gregg (R-NH). This is the first budget Gregg will usher
through Congress; we hope to convince him that adding Arctic drilling
revenues to the Budget will muddy the message, complicate the process and
could jeopardize passage of the overall Resolution.

  Other Senators who will be key to keeping Arctic drilling out of the
Budget resolution include Republicans who previously voted to delete the
provision:  Sens. Gordon Smith (OR), Norm Coleman (MN), Mike Dewine (OH),
John McCain (AZ), and stalwarts Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (ME) and
Lincoln Chafee (RI).  We must retain the support of Democrats who will be
under pressure to change their votes: Blanche Lincoln (AR), Tom Carper
(DE), and Ben Nelson  (NE).  And we have to urge all other Senators that
they shouldn't use the Budget process to open the Arctic Refuge to oil
development-including some who have voted against us in the past--such as
Republican Senators Richard Lugar (IN), Arlen Specter (PA) and John Ensign
(NV); and Democrats Mary Landrieu (LA), and Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye
(HI).  Urge these last three to stick to party unity.

  In addition to direct contacts to all members of Congress, with special
focus on those listed above, we need many Letters to Editors on the
importance of protecting the threatened coastal plain of the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge.  Letters can incorporate one or two of the
following points, but should be kept to 200 words or less.

** The majority of the American people oppose drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
Despite the tone reported in the media, this election was not a referendum
on punching holes in America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

**Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would ruin one of
America's last unspoiled wild places for what the U.S. Geological Survey
and oil company executives concede is only a few months' worth of oil that
would not even be available for a decade.

**Slipping controversial drilling into the Budget Resolution has nothing to
do with the budget or with generating revenues for America. Instead of
using normal  open debate for the important issue of drilling in the
Arctic, drilling proponents want to include speculative revenues from
leasing in the FY2006 budget. Speculative, indeed: even some big oil
companies have expressed skepticism about economics of such remote
development.

**The push to drill in the Arctic is part of a much broader agenda. This
debate transcends the pristine expanses of the Arctic - the integrity of
all of America's remaining wild places is at stake.   Last year, Rep. Tom
DeLay (R-TX) told a group of high-ranking Republicans that the controversy
over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a "symbolic" fight
over whether energy exploration will be allowed in sensitive areas
elsewhere. If they can get into the Arctic, no place in America is safe.

**Protecting the Arctic Refuge is important ecologically and culturally.
The narrow coastal plain is the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge with
its spectacular diversity of wildlife.  The area is the birthing grounds of
the Porcupine caribou herd, the basis of the subsistence and culture of the
Gwich'in people.

   You, the many concerned Sierra Club activists around the nation, are our
winning Arctic strategy.  Your letters and phone calls in the next few
months will make the difference!  Don't wait till the new Congress: here's
how to start now:

     WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW:
**Write or call your Senators and Representative: urge them to keep Arctic
drilling out of the 2005 Budget Resolutions.
   **Write or call Budget chairmen Gregg and Nussle with this message. Their
budget responsibilities have a national significance, and everyone is their
constituent on these money topics.  Judd Gregg: (202)224-3324; fax:
(202)224-4952. Jim Nussle: (202)225-2911, fax: (202)225-9129
  **Write and call the key legislators above, and reach out to your
neighbors and friends to get them to do so also.
   **Contact all the relatives and friends in those states that you can
think of; send them this alert, urge them to write their legislators.  Put
it in your holiday letters!
   ** Send letters to Editor, to newspapers in your state, or get them to
your relatives in the key states, for them to submit to their papers.

  For more information and ways to get involved, contact Betsy Goll
(907)276-4044, [log in to unmask], or Vicky Hoover (415)977-5527,
[log in to unmask]
Thanks for your concern for Alaska's premier wilderness Refuge.

Vicky Hoover
Sierra Club Alaska Task Force
85 Second St., 2nd floor
San Francisco, CA 94105-3441
415-977-5527
[log in to unmask]

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