Hi Shelley,  These are some things you can do to protect wilderness, especially in Alaska where Alaskans want all of AK drilled for oil.  Contact Grassley and tell him what you think about his vote to protect big oil and contact Sen Harkin to thank for him for his vote against big oil subsidies.  Then letters to editors let the public know how drill baby drill lawmakers are protecting big oil profits at the expense of tax payers and our pristine public land.  Hope this information is helpful.  Phyllis

Sen. Chuck Grassley took lots of oil money. And then voted to let Big Oil keep taking our money.

Last night, 48 Senators, including Sen. Chuck Grassley, put Big Oil before the American people and helped defeat a bill that would have ended tax breaks for the five biggest oil companies.¹

How could anyone vote against a bill that would have kept $21 billion of American taxpayers' money out of the pockets of cash-rich oil companies?

One big reason is oil money in our political process. A lot of it. Oil and gas companies spent $39.5 million lobbying congress in just the first quarter of this year,² and have donated tens of millions of dollars directly to the political campaigns of current Senators, including $219,300 to Sen. Chuck Grassley.³

Tell Sen. Chuck Grassley: Stop putting oil company profits and campaign contributions ahead of the American people. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

In all, three Democrats joined all but two Senate Republicans to protect Big Oil tax breaks that even a former Shell CEO said weren't needed.⁴

But make no mistake. Even though we didn't get the 60 votes required for passage, our pressure to end oil subsidies is already working. More and more legislators are acting defensive about their support of Big Oil over the American people.

In February, similar legislation to repeal some oil subsidies got only 44 votes. Yesterday, we got 52 votes. That comes after CREDO Action members sent more than 225,000 petitions to the Senate and made more than 1,000 calls yesterday to 11 key Senators, six of whom flipped their position and voted to end tax breaks to Big Oil.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said yesterday that despite this defeat, he will continue to push for ending oil subsides as part of negotiations on the budget and to raise the debt ceiling.⁵

We need to keep the pressure on. And one key to breaking Big Oil's grasp on our legislators is letting Congress know that we know about the millions of dollars

What I am sick of, is a listserv that is supposed to provide information to members that is turned into a cheap shot forum.  Information please-that is helpful. I am a member and I think that we deserve information that helps us in working with elected officials.

Shelley Sheehy br> Davenport, Iowa