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