|
URGENT! Ask Your Senator to Keep House Budget Free of Arctic Drilling
The Senate is expected to vote on the Budget Resolution this Wednesday, March 16. We need you to keep up the pressure on your Senators, urging them to vote for the Cantwell amendment, which would strip out Arctic Refuge drilling from the Budget Resolution.
Calls are best, but we are urging folks to call, and then use our action page to send a written message.
You should be able to reach the Capitol switchboard by calling this toll-free number: 1-800-247-2971. If you have problems with the toll-free number, please call the switchboard at 202-224-3121, or use our online contact directory to look up the direct phone numbers for your Senators:
http://ga1.org/wilderness/leg-lookup/search.tcl?domain=wilderness&preview_p=1
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Senate Budget: No Arctic Drilling
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
Please vote for the Cantwell amendment to strip Arctic Refuge drilling from the budget.
Poll after poll has shown the American people oppose oil drilling in this special place. This is too important an issue to be attached to the federal budget. It deserves its own debate in Congress.
Moreover, because no one knows the amount or value of oil that might lie under the Arctic Coastal Plain, it is fiscally irresponsible to include these highly speculative revenue estimates as part of our federal budget.
Sincerely,
|
Campaign Launched:
March 14, 2005
|
The budget bill is the greatest threat to the Arctic Refuge we will see this year. Drilling proponents know the issue is too controversial to use the normal legislative process to open the Refuge to oil drilling. Instead they hope to win the Refuge by attaching oil drilling revenues to the must-pass Budget bill which needs just a simple majority to pass.
The issue of oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge is too important to the American public and future generations to be snuck through in the budget bill in an attempt to circumvent the established process. If it is to be considered at all, it should be discussed and brought to a vote on its own merits.
NOT THIS PLACE
There are some places that should be off-limits to oil drilling and industrial development, and the Arctic Refuge is one of them. The harm to wildlife habitat for polar bear, caribou, and millions of migratory birds would be permanent and irreparable. We have a moral responsibility to save wild places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for future generations. That’s why our country has remained committed to its protection for nearly 50 years.
NOT A SOLUTION TO ENERGY PROBLEMS
Drilling in the Refuge won’t solve our energy problems. It is not worth damaging America’s greatest national wildlife refuge for what the U.S. Geological Survey says would be far less oil than the U.S. consumes in a single
year.
It’s misleading and untrue to say oil drilling won’t harm the environment, since the result would be a sprawling industrial complex of drilling sites spread throughout one and a half million acres of critical wildlife habitat. Hundreds of miles of pipelines and roads, airstrips, power lines and pumping stations and housing for
workers would be needed, as well as tankers to transport this oil -- risking further oil spills in critical habitat. And even the oil companies admit none of the oil would reach the market for 10 years.
The best ways to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil are to conserve more, make cars more fuel efficient, and invest in renewable forms of energy like wind and solar.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW!
|
