E-M:/ Fw: DEN Alert: Protect the Arctic Refuge Against a Sneak Attack

[Lowell D Corbin <ufat2@juno.com>]

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Enviro-Mich message from Lowell D Corbin <ufat2@juno.com>
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They are at it again (or should I say yet?).

Lowell

A UFAT message from:
Lowell D. Corbin
Co-Chair: Environmental Action Committee
Michigan Audubon Society
ufat2@juno.com

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Defenders of Wildlife" <denlines@den.defenders.org>
To: DENlines@defenders.org (DEN Activist)
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 14:16:59 -0400
Subject: DEN Alert: Protect the Arctic Refuge Against a Sneak Attack
Message-ID: <141659200301289026.1043781419@den.defenders.org>

DEN Alert: Protect the Arctic Refuge Against a Sneak Attack

The 108th Congress convened this month and already oil corporations 
are renewing their campaign to drill in America's premiere wildlife 
sanctuary – the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Big Oil's allies 
in Congress are hatching a back-door scheme to hide their measure 
in the massive federal budget bill. Last year's bipartisan Senate 
vote to reject drilling reflected the wishes of a solid majority of 
Americans. It would be a perversion of the democratic process to use 
the arcane budget process to authorize this failed and widely 
discredited proposal. Drilling in the refuge has nothing to do with 
the federal budget, and this issue shouldn't be decided in that 
context. The only purpose of putting this issue in the budget is 
to prevent open legislative debate and could even prevent a vote 
on the issue. Don't let Big Oil destroy the home of polar bears, 
musk oxen, wolves, millions of migratory birds, caribou and hundreds 
of other species – all for six months of oil that would take 10 
years to make it to market.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Tell your representative that it's wrong to try to pass Arctic 
drilling in budget legislation. Thankfully, we have many supporters 
in Congress, and even more who object to the procedural trickery to 
which the oil industry and its friends have stooped. Congresswoman 
Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., is collecting the signatures of 
conservation-minded Republicans on a letter aimed at persuading 
their party leadership to keep this issue out of the budget process. 
Please phone your representative and ask him or her to sign Rep. 
Johnson's letter. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard today at 
202-224-3121. Thanks for your support of the Arctic refuge -- the 
crown jewel of the national wildlife refuge system.


When you reach your representative's office, ask to speak with the 
staff member who handles environmental or energy issues. Here are 
some suggested talking points:

*  I urge my representative to show support for one of our nation's 
last truly wild places – the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – and 
to sign a letter being circulated by Rep. Nancy Johnson that 
opposes using the federal budget process to open the refuge to oil 
exploration and drilling.

*  The oil industry and its allies in Congress will say or do 
anything to open the refuge to oil drilling, despite the fact that 
a majority of Americans oppose drilling there. 

*  Back-door schemes don't change the basic facts: Drilling in the 
refuge will ruin one of our last great wild places, for what the 
U.S. Geological Survey estimates is less oil than the United States 
uses in six months – and it wouldn't get here for 10 years or more.



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DENlines is a biweekly publication of Defenders of Wildlife, a 
leading national conservation organization recognized as one of 
the nation's most progressive advocates for wildlife and its 
habitat and known for its effective leadership on saving 
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