Hi everybody, It's yet another vote in the House on Arctic Refuge, expected on June 10. . Please encourage representatives to vote against drilling again. See the message at the end of the text for additional comments to make. High gas prices make this urgent! Phyllis Mains ------------------------------ HOUSE TO HOLD VOTE ON DRILLING IN ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE!! House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is working to exploit the fears of high gas prices in order to once again vote on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge sometime during the day of June 10. The House has already passed a bill for drilling once in this session of Congress, but it was rejected in the Senate. DeLay has said his latest attempt is to prod the Senate into action on the long stalled energy bill. While it is unclear what impact, if any, this would have on the Senate, the Republican leadership wants to show that the House is doing something about the high gas prices. The provision to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been soundly rejected numerous times over the past three years by the Senate, and government reports show that it will have no impact at all on gas prices. Despite widespread evidence that there is almost nothing that Congress can do to help lower gas prices in the short term, politicians are keeping their eyes on the November elections and ways they can appear to be solving the problem of high gas prices. Most of the American people agree that making cars more fuel efficient and punishing consumer-gouging oil companies is the best ways to deal with the high gas prices. Yet the proposals being floated by the House to address the problem deal almost exclusively with more drilling in some form or another, showing how out of touch the Republican leadership in the House is with the American public. PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS AND CONGRESS MEMBERS AND GIVE THEM THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE: THE HOUSE LEADERSHIP IS ENGAGED IN A POLITICAL PLOY TO EXPLOIT THE FEAR OF HIGH GAS PRICES IN ORDER TO DRILL IN THE ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE. PLEASE OPPOSE ANY LEGISLATION THAT ALLOWS OIL AND GAS DRILLING IN THE ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE. CALL THE CAPITAL SWITCHBOARD AT 1-800-839-5276 AND ASK TO BE BE CONNECTED WITH THE OFFICE OF YOUR SENATOR / REPRESENTATIVE. (To find out who your Representative is, go to: http://capwiz.com/awc/dbq/officials/). Send an email to Congress at http://capwiz.com/awc/issues/alert/?alertid=2175191. Please pass this alert on to family and friends and ask them to do the same. Thanks! Erik DuMont National Field Director Alaska Wilderness League 122 C Street, NW, Suite 240 Washington, DC 20001 P: 202-544-5205 F: 202-544-5197 www.alaskawild.org If you're not already a member, join the movement to protect Alaska's wild places. Visit www.alaskawild.org and click on the bear! ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]