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Alaska Wild Update #192 - Nov 15, 2002 QUOTE OF THE WEEK "We
can't despair. We still have our beliefs and we will continue to fight
for them." HEADLINES WHAT IT ALL MEANS (THE ELECTION THAT IS) THE ENERGY BILL DROPPED (FOR NOW)
As the dust from the 2002 mid-term elections clear, many of us in across the country have quickly realized that times are going to be extremely tough over the next two years. We have an administration that is the most anti-environmental administration in history. On Tuesday, largely due to the backing of the White House, control of the Senate was narrowly handed over to pro-drilling factions. With control of the Senate in the hands of some very drill-happy Senators, the drill-anywhere-and-everywhere crowd will also control the committees that draft the legislation, and they will get to decide what legislation comes before the floor for a vote and what doesn’t. In-coming Energy Committee Chair Pete Dominici (R-NM) is expected to quickly bring up drilling legislation. "ANWR would be on the plate immediately," Domenici said to reporters soon after the election. Aside from the first several months of 2000, this will be the first time since the Arctic Refuge was given it’s current status in 1980 that the House, Senate, and White House are all controlled by pro-drilling forces. While the Arctic has always enjoyed strong support from both sides of the aisle, it is more vital than ever before to continue to demonstrate bi-partisan support for protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In addition to control of the Senate going from pro-Arctic to pro-drilling, several of the Senators who voted with us in April were defeated. Despite the defeats, the majority of the Senate still supports protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. At least one of the new incoming Senators has stated on his website that he is currently opposed to drilling (Senator-elect Norm Coleman, R-MN), and in Arkansas, Mark Pryor defeated the pro-drilling Senator Tim Hutchinson. Lastly, drilling’s biggest Senate cheerleader, Frank Murkowski (R-AK), won his gubernatorial race and will be vacating his Senate seat and his post on the Senate energy committee. The
Arctic Refuge will be facing unprecedented risk in the coming session
of Congress. Yet the fundamental facts of the issue remain exactly as
they were last month, last year, and last century. There is still only
an estimated six months of oil in the Refuge, it will still take up
to ten years to make that oil accessible, the Caribou and the Gwich’in
will still be devastated by drilling, the United States still cannot
drill our way to energy independence, and most importantly, the majority
of people across the One
year ago, the Arctic was facing the imminent threat of an energy bill
being saddled with a drilling component. One year ago, tens of thousands
of people all over the country wrote letters to their legislators, wrote
emails, made phone calls, sent faxes, made personal visits, held rallies,
gave slide shows, and did what needed to be done in order to prevail.
In April of this year, the Senate responded with the strongest Senate
vote ever in history against drilling. Our work is cut out for us, but
we are up to the task, we will all pull together, and we will win in
the end.
The first major overhaul of U.S. energy policy in a decade is dead for this year and will have to wait until the new Congress convenes next year, Senate negotiators decided. Senate
Democrats and Republicans participating in the energy bill conference
with the House say they have been unable to reach a bipartisan consensus
on what to do with energy legislation. Speaking to reporters after a
meeting this afternoon, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Sen. Frank Murkowski
(R-AK) say the Senate conferees have rejected a House proposal to pass
a scaled-down version of the energy bill that includes only new pipeline
safety language and renewal of the Price Anderson Act, indemnifying
the nuclear industry. Instead, they say lawmakers may try and pass pipeline
safety legislation on its own, but any effort to pass a larger energy
bill "The political will to act did not match the rhetoric of the past two years on the need to address looming problems, such as electricity reform, natural gas supply, and our increasing thirst for foreign oil for transportation," Senator Bingaman said. "I think the task of coming up with a comprehensive approach to energy policy, absent a major crisis, will only grow more difficult in the next Congress," he added.
The
measure's controversial elements included Bush's call for opening up
a portion of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling.
Despite these and other disputes, lawmakers in both parties embraced
the need for a major bill that would decrease U.S. reliance on foreign
oil. The most important provision to accomplish the task was largely
rejected in the spring. Raising the fuel efficiency of automobiles,
the quickest and most effective method for reducing dependence of foreign
oil was voted down in LAME
DUCK SHENANIGANS Among many other bills that would have a damaging effect on Alaskan public lands, we are growing increasingly concerned about the University of Alaska Lands bill (S.1816). Senator Murkowski was pushing hard for this legislation prior to the elections and now that he will be leaving this could definitely be something he looks for as a "going away present". S.1816 recently passed out of the Energy Committee (en bloc with the Washington Wilderness bill at Sen. Murkowski's insistence). In the final hour that the Senate was in before they left for elections, Sen. Murkowski tried to sneak the bill through without any debate. S.1816 is a threat to the Tongass, Chugach, the Outer Continental Shelf of the Arctic Refuge, and the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska. It could give away up to 500,000 acres of Federal lands, ultimately leading to more damaging clear-cutting, mining, oil drilling, and other industrial scale development in Alaska. At the end of a congressional session, literally any crazy piece of legislation becomes possible. The University Lands bill is but one example of the numerous bills that may come to the Senate floor during the lame duck session. With the Senate due back in DC for upcoming week, it is important that people continue to email and call their Senators and tell them to oppose ANY legislation that would harm our public lands in Alaska. Update
from the Walk to Washington They’ve arrived!!! Well, mostly. Tim Leach and Ken Madsen, the NE leg and the cross continental leg of the Walk to Washington arrived in the nation’s capitol Thursday, November 14. Emily Ferry, still cycling the southern leg, will arrive in DC on Saturday, November 16. Many Gwich’in leaders flew into town to witness the arrival of the walk and to celebrate the end of the journey. Between the two of them, Ken and Tim pedaled, kayaked, and walked over 4,600 miles! All along the way, they talked with thousands of people and gave dozens of slide shows about the Arctic Refuge and spoke of the incredible values of the wilderness. At a press conference on Capitol Hill, Ken stated "People across the country still care about those values.” On
Saturday, November 16, Ken, Emily, Tim, Gwich’in leaders, and religious
leaders will celebrate the end of the walk with a public bike ride into
the city from Mt Vernon, followed by a walk up Capitol hill en route
to the reception site. |
