Action in the House and Senate is expected this week on the bills that will permit drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, unless enough Senators and Representatives can be persuaded to vote the will of the American people to preserve the wilderness. It seems so foolish to lose the irreplaceable--and face catastrophic damage of even greater proportions later--because we are either too stubborn, too selfish, or too ignorant to understand the consequences of our unconstrained appetite for energy.
The following is information from AlaskaWild, a coalition of progressive, environmental groups working to convince Congress to vote in accord with the will of the majority of the American people to protect ANWR.
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Arctic Drilling Proposal on Senate Floor. Calls Needed! Drilling in the Arctic Refuge will be under debate tomorrow on the floor of the US Senate (Wednesday, November 2) while the Senate is debating their version of the overall Budget Reconciliation Bill. It is possible Arctic champion Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) will again offer an amendment to remove the Arctic drilling provision from the budget reconciliation bill. Debate is expected to go all day Wednesday and most of the day Thursday. Drilling in America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has no place in the federal budget reconciliation bill. This proposal has nothing to do with lowering gas prices. According the Government's own Department of Energy, drilling in the Refuge will lower gas prices by only a penny per gallon 20 years from now. This proposal has nothing to do with reducing our dependence on foreign oil. The Department of Energy estimates that even when the Arctic Refuge is at peak production, our country will still be importing 66% - a whopping two thirds of all of our oil. Drilling in America's Arctic Refuge has nothing to do with the budget --it is a backdoor effort to ram an unpopular proposal through the Senate, sidestepping the usual process of open debate. The American people have made it clear that they want the Arctic Refuge protected. There are some places that are too special to ruin with oil drilling, and America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of them. WE NEED YOU TO CALL YOUR SENATOR NOW!! Take a moment and call your Senator -- tell them to please protect America's Arctic Refuge and vote against the budget reconciliation bill. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 To send an email, go to:
If this bill passes the Senate, we will still have a chance to stop it in the House, and indications are looking better all the time that the House will not accept a budget with Arctic in it. But if we can stop it in the Senate, we don't have to worry about the House - please call your Senator today! 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 > If you're not already a member, join the movement to protect Alaska's wild places. Visit > and click on the bear!
Senator Maria Cantwell's reaction to ANWR:
Cantwell Fights to Stop Drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge
Flawed Proposal Would Not Reduce Gas Prices or Confront America’s Oil Addiction
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) fought to stop oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Wednesday. The Senate is scheduled to vote on Cantwell’s anti-drilling amendment sometime Thursday.
“This is about more than just protecting one of America’s last pristine natural treasures,” said Cantwell, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “Using backdoor tactics to destroy America’s last great wild frontier will not solve our nation’s energy problems and will do nothing to lower skyrocketing gas prices.”
Proponents of the plan claim that drilling in the Refuge can be done in an environmentally benign way, but evidence from adjacent Prudhoe Bay indicates otherwise. According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and Trans-Alaska Pipeline have caused an average of 504 spills annually on the North Slope since 1996. Through last year, those spills included more than 1.9 million gallons of toxic substances including diesel, crude oil, and hydraulic oil.
“This is about priorities,” said Cantwell. “This is about harnessing American ingenuity to confront our dangerous oil addiction. We need to give our children a future less dependent on fossil fuel. According to the Energy Department’s latest analysis, even if oil companies drill in the wildlife refuge and hit peak production, it will only lower gas prices by a penny per gallon.”
Earlier this year, the Senate Budget Committee included in its version of the Fiscal Year 2006 budget resolution provisions that would pave the way to arctic drilling. Cantwell’s amendment would strike language authorizing artic drilling from the Budget Reconciliation bill, undoing this irresponsible manipulation of the budget process and encouraging an honest and open debate of the issue.
Last March, Senator Cantwell led a Senate floor debate to try and strip this provision from the budget resolution. Unfortunately, that effort failed on a 49 to 51 vote. Since then, Cantwell has continued her steadfast opposition to this misguided drilling proposal, which would bring irreversible damage to this unique and fragile ecosystem and put the entire region at risk for a catastrophic oil spill.
Established by President Eisenhower in 1960, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is a diverse and fragile ecosystem. Proponents of drilling want to open up the most biologically diverse part of the Refuge, the coastal plain, to oil exploration. This area serves as a critical habitat for caribou, musk ox, swans, snow geese and numerous other species. It is also home to the 150,000 animal Porcupine caribou herd, critically important to the culture and the subsistence lifestyle of the Native American Gwich'in tribe in Northeast Alaska and Canada.
Posted by: tanner | November 02, 2005 at 05:21 PM