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Arctic Refuge Battle Resuming
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Progressive Portal
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Jan 13, 2005 16:10 PST
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ALL THE OIL IN ANWR WOULD DO LITTLE TO SOLVE ENERGY
PROBLEMS, BUT AS TOM DeLAY SAYS, "IT'S ABOUT PRECEDENT"
[From the Natural Resources Defense Council <http://www.nrdc.org>]
Republican leaders in Congress are pushing for a quick vote that would
open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling. Even
worse, they are planning to avoid public debate on the measure by hiding
it in a must-pass budget bill.
Covering more than 20 million acres, and free - for now - of roads,
lodging, and even campsites, ANWR teems with wildlife, including more
than 160 bird species, 36 kinds of land mammals, nine marine mammal
species and 36 types of fish. It's an important breeding ground and
habitat for caribou, polar bears and other animals.
Opening this pristine wilderness to dirty development will do little to
solve America's energy problems. Oil from the area wouldn't begin to
flow to market for at least ten years after the start of drilling. It
would increase world oil reserves by only about 0.3 percent. The total
amount that could be recovered economically from the refuge over a
50-year span -- approximately 5.3 billion barrels -- amounts to less
than a nine month's supply, at current consumption rates, for the United
States.
CONTINUED BELOW ...
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George Bush, his Congressional lieutenants, and their cronies in the
energy industry know all this perfectly well. Why then do they keep
trying to force ANWR open? As House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX)
recently put it, "It's about precedent." The long-range Bush-Cheney
energy plan is to eliminate as many obstacles as it can to corporate
exploitation of public lands and wild places, including coastal waters.
To support this goal, the administration wants to establish the
principle that the need for energy, however small the amount and
damaging the consequences, must take precedence over nearly all other
values, such as the traditional American - even Republican - concern
with conserving nature in its wild state. ANWR is simply the ground on
which this larger battle is being waged.
By attaching their plan to a budget bill, advocates of ANWR drilling
hope to push it through without the open public debate they know they're
likely to lose again, as they have in several previous attempts.
Don't let them get away with this cynical maneuver. Write your
legislators today and tell them you *still* don't want oil drilling in
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Take Action
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Send a message to your legislators at:
http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic/takeaction.asp
More Information
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Chair of Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee calls drilling in
ANWR his top priority:
http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2635671,00.html
Background information, fact sheets, slide show, video, and other
materials on ANWR from the Natural Resources Defense Council:
http://www.nrdc.org/land/wilderness/arctic.asp
Maps and other resources from Defenders of Wildlife:
http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/arctic/overview.html
Sierra Club resources:
http://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/arctic/
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