Take Action

Arctic Votes Again Approaching in Congress
Your voice can make a difference

In Alaska's far north, animals that inhabit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge year round are preparing for winter. Ptarmigans have donned their winter white; pregnant polar bears have set up dens; grizzlies are beginning their hibernation. The natural quiet is broken only by the howl of wolves or the bark of an arctic fox.

Meanwhile, in Congress, oil industry cronies continue to push a budget bill that would convert this cherished, untouched wilderness into a vast oil field. We cannot let that happen. Even if you have taken action many times before, we need your help again. Several votes are expected soon in both the House and Senate. These votes will be close, and your action can make a difference.

Please click here to take action:
http://ga1.org/campaign/arctic_vote

Photo above: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, AK. Photo courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service. Photo below: Oil development at Kuparuk, Prudhoe Bay, AK -- what oil development could look like on the Arctic Refuge. Photo courtesy Bert Gildart.

The Goings-On in Congress

As you read this, the oil industry's allies in Congress are pushing a budget bill through Congress that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. Unless we stop them, this world-class wilderness -- home to grizzlies, caribou, wolves and millions of birds -- will become a vast oil field with its heavy equipment, pollution and miles of roads.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is expected to pass its version of Arctic Refuge drilling legislation today. The House Resources Committee is expected to follow suit next week. After that, the Budget Committees in the House and Senate will package the drilling language, along with changes from other committees, into a single omnibus Reconciliation Bill. Each chamber could vote as early as the end of this month on the completed reconciliation bill.

Arctic Drilling is Paramount Goal of These Bills

The bill drafted by the Senate committee and the bill we expect to see emerge from the House committee leave no room for doubt: they are written to grease the skids for drilling in the Arctic Refuge with as little environmental oversight as possible. But ask yourself: if drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is so clean, why does the legislation let the industry off the hook and exempt drilling from so many environmental laws?

Both the drilling language in the Senate budget bill and the version likely to be considered in the House would exempt or severely limit the application of fundamental environmental laws that would otherwise apply to drilling in the Refuge. The Senate version doesn't even try to disguise its real agenda: to give oil companies free rein to industrialize the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Make no mistake: any version of this legislation would open the entire 1.5-million acre Coastal Plain - the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge - to oil and gas drilling.

Some Taking Advantage of Natural Disasters to Promote Industry Goals

In Katrina and Rita's aftermath, some members of Congress are trying to push Arctic Refuge drilling as the answer to America's energy problems. They are also using the Gulf Coast tragedy as an excuse to slash the very government programs that help the neediest Americans.

To add insult to injury, any oil from the Refuge, if it is found at all, would take years to come to production and would affect the price of gasoline by just one penny per gallon! And that would be 20 years from now, at peak production. In the meantime, consumers get nothing - except an industrial wasteland where a wildlife refuge used to be.

Famed conservationist Aldo Leopold once wrote that, "Having to squeeze the last drop of utility out of the land has the same desperate finality as having to chop up the furniture to keep warm."

America is neither desperate nor shortsighted. We can do better than sacrifice the Arctic Refuge to our gas-guzzling economy. We have the means and the technology to wean ourselves from profligate oil use.

Objections to Reconciliation Bill Are No Longer Just About Arctic Refuge Drilling

Conservationists like you are not alone in opposing the Reconciliation bill. A broad and growing coalition of progressive organizations -- operating under the banner of the Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities (ECAP) -- has added its voices to the chorus demanding that Congress reject the Reconciliation Bill's draconian cuts to Medicare and Medicade, student aid and other vital programs.

We Need Your Help

Please take a moment to tell Congress to keep the oil industry out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Adding your own words at this time is absolutely critical to the success of this campaign.
http://ga1.org/campaign/arctic_vote

This vote will be very close. Your action can make the difference. Thank you for your help.

You can also send your letter directly to your Members of Congress. You can look up the names, fax numbers, and web forms for your Members here:
http://ga1.org/wilderness/leg-lookup/search.tcl

For More Information
- Factsheet: Drilling Into The Legislation:
http://www.wilderness.org/OurIssues/Arctic/ArcticRealityCheck.cfm
- Factsheet: Penny A Gallon:
http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/PennyaGallon20yrs1.pdf
- More about ECAP's call-in day (which runs through this Thursday only):
http://www.ACTNOW.org

Sample Letter

Dear Senators/Representative:

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge today is an unspoiled landscape as wild and free as it was 10,000 years ago. It's home to polar bears, wolves, grizzlies, and millions of migratory birds. And it's a holy place to the native Gwich'in people, whose culture is inextricably linked to the 130,000 caribou that give birth there every spring.

But some in Congress are determined to turn this sacred ground into an industrial wasteland. Even though data from the Department of Energy indicate that at best, drilling might lower gas prices by about a penny a gallon -- in 20 years. A penny? Gas prices change by more than that from one day to the next.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a priceless natural treasure to be protected and passed on to our children - not something to be given away to the oil companies on the false promise of a penny two decades from now.

Wrecking the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for a penny a gallon 20 years from now is the wrong choice for America. I urge you to oppose any legislation that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. Please keep the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge the way it is: wild, unspoiled, and free of oil rigs.

Sincerely,
(Your name and address)

Another Way to Help Protect the Arctic Refuge

You can help The Wilderness Society's efforts to keep the Arctic Refuge wild by making a secure online donation to our Arctic Refuge fund. So far we've raised almost $26,000, but we need to raise $50,000 by October 31 to meet our goal. Click this link to donate today:
http://ga1.org/campaign/arctic_vote

The Wilderness Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving American wilderness. Our mission is to ensure that future generations will enjoy the clean air and water, wildlife, beauty, and opportunity for recreation and renewal provided by pristine forests, rivers, deserts, and mountains. As a subscriber to WildAlert, you join more than 300,000 Wilderness Society members and supporters in our efforts to protect and restore America's wild places.