[NV Greens] Defend the Arctic Refuge

[Kurt Kuznicki]

Nevada

Defend the Arctic Refuge: 

A Winning Strategy

 

  The polling places had hardly closed on Nov. 2 before a cocky Bush Administration began crowing of an alleged mandate to drill in the Arctic.  Media reports egged them on with predictions that with Republicans in control of the Senate by a margin of 55-45, they will finally muscle Arctic drilling through the Senate--the body that defeated drilling in 2003 by a vote of 52-48.  

 

  This is truly counting their chickens before they hatch.  Their past failed efforts have put the remote, obscure Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into the national limelight, and polls have consistently shown steady opposition to ruining the wildness of the fragile coastal plain for a dubious, very limited, difficult to exploit amount of oil.. Senate leaders, fully recognize the broad opposition to drilling in this pristine corner of northeast Alaska.  Thus, without the 60 votes needed to stop a filibuster on a normal bill, they plan to rev up this year’s attack on the Arctic by slipping Arctic drilling revenues into the Federal Budget resolution (which can’t be filibustered) early in 2005.  And here we have a good chance to stop them—as we have always stopped them before!  We will expose the foolishness and dishonesty of sneaking the Arctic into the budget as we contact key members of Congress, such as Nevada’s two Senators. :

 

House of Representatives:

  In the past, House Budget Chairman Jim Nussle (R-IA) has declined to use his budget as a vehicle to move Arctic drilling.  He supports opening the Arctic and has voted to do so in the energy bill, but he has always kept his budget clean.  We must appeal to him to keep up that worthy stance. 

 

  Some other moderate Republicans who can help on the House side are Reps. Christopher Shays and Nancy Johnson (CT), and Charles Bass (NH). 

 

Senate:

  In the Senate the spotlight is on the new Chairman of the Budget Committee Judd Gregg (R-NH). This is the first budget Gregg will usher through Congress; we hope to convince him that adding Arctic drilling revenues to the Budget will muddy the message, complicate the process and could jeopardize passage of the Budget.

 

  Other Senators who will be key to keeping Arctic drilling out of the Budget resolution include Republicans who previously voted to delete the provision:  Sens. Gordon Smith (OR), Norm Coleman (MN), Mike Dewine (OH), John McCain (AZ), and stalwarts Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (ME) and Lincoln Chafee (RI). 

 

  We must retain the support of Democrats who will be under pressure to change their votes: Blanche Lincoln (AR), Tom Carper (DE), and Ben Nelson (NE).  

 

And we have to urge all other Senators that they shouldn't use the Budget process to open the Arctic Refuge to oil development—including some who have voted against us in the past--such as Republican Senators Richard Lugar (IN), John Ensign (NV); Arlen Specter (PA), and George Voinovich (OH), and Democrats Mary Landrieu (LA), and Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye (HI).  Urge these last three to stick to party unity.     

 

  In addition to direct contacts to all members of Congress, with special focus on those listed above, we need many Letters to Editors on the importance of protecting the threatened coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  Letters can incorporate one or two of the following points, but should be kept to 200 words or less. 

** The majority of the American people oppose drilling in the Arctic Refuge.  Despite the tone reported in the media, this election was not a referendum on punching holes in America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  

 

**Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would ruin one of America’s last unspoiled wild places for what the U.S. Geological Survey and oil company executives concede is only a few months’ worth of oil that would not even be available for a decade. 

 

**Protecting the Arctic Refuge is important ecologically and culturally.  The narrow coastal plain is the biological                                                                                                                                                                 -- over heart of the Arctic Refuge with its spectacular diversity of wildlife.  The area is the birthing grounds of the Porcupine --caribou herd, the basis of the subsistence and culture of the Gwich'in people. 

 

**The push to drill in the Arctic is part of a much broader agenda. This debate transcends the pristine expanses of the Arctic – the integrity of all of America's remaining wild places is at stake.   Last year, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) told a group of high-ranking Republicans that the controversy over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a “symbolic” fight over whether energy exploration will be allowed in sensitive areas elsewhere. If they can get into the Arctic, no place in America is safe. 

 

 No matter what one thinks of drilling, it’s wrong to sneak this into the national budget:

**Slipping controversial drilling into the Budget Resolution has nothing to do with the budget or with generating revenues for America. Instead of using normal open debate for the important issue of drilling in the Arctic, drilling proponents want to include speculative revenues from leasing in the FY2006 budget. Speculative, indeed: even some big oil companies have expressed skepticism about economics of such remote development.  

 

** It’s a dishonest trick to base a budget on revenues that may never occur, and it could worsen our serious budget deficit.  Keep the budget clean. 

 

  Your letters and phone calls in the next few months will make the difference!  Please start now:

 

     WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW:  

**Write or call your Senators and Representative: urge them to keep Arctic drilling out of the 2005 Budget Resolutions.

 

   **Write or call Budget chairmen Gregg and Nussle with this message.  You’re not from New Hampshire or Iowa?  No matter: their budget responsibilities have a national significance, and everyone is their constituent on these money topics.  Judd Gregg: (202)224-3324; fax: (202)224-4952. Jim Nussle: (202)225-2911, fax: (202)225-9129 

 

   **If you’re from Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, write and call the key legislators mentioned above, and reach out to your neighbors and friends to get them to do so also.

   ** Send letters to Editor, to newspapers in your state, opposing Arctic drilling and opposing including it n the budget, 

 

 

    
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/nvgreen/attachments/20050224/c6c54077/attachment.htm