Dear Alaska Activists,
 
Senate Gives OK to Arctic Drilling in Budget
 
In a razor thin margin, the Senate today approved a stripped down budget
whose primary purpose seems to be to advance legislation allowing oil
drilling in America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  By the narrowest
of
votes, the Senate voted 51-49 to approve the overall budget that sets
spending caps, and has one single instruction for budget reconciliation -
an
instruction to the Energy Committee that could be used to allow drilling
in
the Arctic Refuge.
 
Drilling in America's Arctic Refuge will do nothing to help the budget,
reduce prices at the pump, or reduce our dependence on foreign oil. 
Worse
yet, if drilling actually ever takes place, it will actually weaken our
national security by placing more reliance on the vulnerable, aging,
fragile
infrastructure at Prudhoe Bay and the Trans Alaska Pipeline System
(TAPS).
Oil workers are currently engaged in cleaning up the single largest oil
spill ever in the history of the North Slope due to a corroded pipeline
feeding into the TAPS. Oil drilling is a dirty business and spills
happen,
but this is the exact reason why drilling should never be allowed to take
place in America's Arctic Refuge.  The pipeline itself is very
unprotected
and in 2001 spewed thousands of barrels out across the landscape after a
drunk hunter shot it with a hunting rifle.  In terms of national
security,
TAPS is a disaster waiting to happen.  Accoring to Former Director of the
CIA James Woolsey and Rocky Mountain Institute CEO Amory Lovins,  "[TAPS
is]
largely accessible to attackers, but often unrepairable in winter." 
Lovins
and Woolsey go on to say that  "if key pumping stations or facilities at
either end were disabled, at least the above-ground half of 9 million
barrels of hot oil could congeal in one winter week into the world's
biggest
Chapstik."    
 
A couple of quick words on a very complicated process.  This Senate vote
is
the first step in a very long process.  A year ago, we lost the exact
same
vote in the Senate by the exact same amount, although several individual
Senators voted differently.  In order for drilling to be approved and
signed
into law by the President, there are many, many more steps this
legislation
has to go through.  There are actually two entirely separate bills that
have
to be approved by both the House and Senate.  The first bill is the
budget
resolution and is the bill with which we are currently dealing.  The
budget
resolution is non-binding and never goes to the President.  The second
bill
is the budget reconciliation bill, and it is binding and does get signed
by
the President at which point it become law.  As of this week, we have
completed only the first two votes that have to happen for only the first
bill, the budget resolution.  Ultimately, each bill has to be voted on
many
times:  in committee in the House and Senate; then once each by the full
House and full Senate; once by a conference committee that irons out the
differences between the House and Senate versions; and finally again by
both
the full House and full Senate to approve the changes that were made in
the
conference committee.  At this point, only the Senate budget committee
and
the full Senate have voted.  During the week of March 27, the House
budget
committee will take up the bill, to be shortly followed by the full House
where we will again have the opportunity to stop the whole budget
resolution.  
 
One of the things that the budget resolution does is it has instructions
on
how to complete the second bill, the budget reconciliation.  If a budget
resolution does not pass, neither the House nor the Senate can do a
budget
reconciliation at all.  One of the primary purposes of a budget
reconciliation bill is to cut the deficit.  The current budget resolution
only has one single reconciliation instruction: drill for oil in
America's
Arctic Refuge, and not only is it projected to not raise much money for
cutting the deficit (only 4 billion) but even that paltry amount is
actually
slated to be used for projects other than reducing debt.  In short,
drilling
supporters are tacitly admitting that the only reason they are even
attempting to have a budget reconciliation is get drilling in the Arctic
Refuge.  A real reconciliation bill would attempt to actually do things
that
would cut the deficit.  That being said, there are many more steps to go
before they even finish the budget resolution, much less start on the
budget
reconciliation.   
 
While attention on the budget resolution will now shift to the House of
Representatives, it is important for us to thank those Senators who stood
with us and to let those who didn't know that we are watching and are
disgusted with their pandering to Big Oil special interests.  Please take
a
moment and send an email either thanking your Senator for their support
or
expressing your disappointment if they voted to pass the Arctic drilling
budget.   
 
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATOR'S OFFICES TODAY!   
 
Go to
http://capwiz.com/awc/issues/alert/?alertid=8595411&type=CO
<http://capwiz.com/awc/issues/alert/?alertid=8595411&type=CO>  to take
action.  
 

Keep up the fight - we won last year and we'll win again this year, but
we
need everyone to make another push this year for us to be able to keep
the
Arctic wild and free.
 
All the best,
 
Erik DuMont

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