Climate News 10-01-01

THANKS-A-MILLION!
UPDATE ON THE INHOFE AMENDMENTS
SENATOR REID FILES FOR CLOTURE
MORE AMENDMENTS AHEAD
TAKE ACTION!
HOW ELSE YOU CAN HELP
ACTIVIST RESOURCES

THANKS-A-MILLION!
Dear wonderful Arctic Refuge friends and supporters. Thank you for enduring
the chaotic legislative whirlwind of the last 10 days. We’ll continue to
keep you updated about what’s going on in Washington, we’ll continue to
weather this storm together, and together we’ll protect America’s Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge.

UPDATE ON THE INHOFE AMENDMENT
When we last sent out our update, Senator Inhofe (R-OK) had gone to the
Senate floor to reaffirm his intention to attach two amendments to the
Senate Defense Authorization Bill. One amendment is an energy bill
previously introduced by Senator Murkowski, the other H.R. 4, the full House
energy bill that includes $38 billion in oil, coal, nuclear and auto
subsidies. Both amendments include a provision to mandate drilling for oil
and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Defense Authorization bill was originally scheduled for a vote last
Monday or Tuesday, but as of Wednesday afternoon, when the Senate adjourned
for the Yom Kippur holiday, the Defense Authorization bill had not come up
for a vote, and neither had the Inhofe amendments. In fact, we believe that
the Inhofe amendments are responsible for delaying the entire Defense bill!
Politicians, both those that support and oppose drilling, agree that the
Inhofe amendment is totally inappropriate at a time when critical national
security legislation is needed – yet Senator Inhofe has thus far refused to
back down.

SENATOR REID FILES FOR CLOTURE
Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and 18 other Senators filed for cloture on the
Defense Authorization Bill on Wednesday. If Senator Reid gets the 60 votes
he needs for cloture on the Defense Authorization bill, then only amendments
that pertain directly to the legislation can be offered – which would rule
out both Inhofe amendments! We want Senators to vote for cloture, and thus
block the Inhofe amendments and let the Defense bill pass free of Arctic
Refuge drilling legislation, which will do nothing to improve our national
security now or in the future. The vote on cloture will be at 10am on
Tuesday 10/2 – please call your Senators and ask them to oppose unrelated
amendments to allow drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge and support cloture on Defense Authorization Bill.

MORE AMENDMENTS AHEAD
Senator Murkowski told our Senate champions on Wednesday that he intends to
attach Arctic Refuge drilling language or an energy bill that includes
Arctic Refuge drilling as an amendment to any amendable bill (which is
pretty much any bill that moves to the Senate floor), and he has been quoted
as saying he has 51 votes. If Senator Murkowski appears to have enough
votes to succeed in this attempt, we will need our Arctic Refuge supporters
in the Senate to filibuster these damaging and divisive amendments. Senator
Murkowski also released a statement last week in which he said, “I am
prepared to hold up normal legislative business to get an energy bill to the
floor.”

TAKE ACTION!
Please call your Senators today at (202) 224-3121. Ask them to oppose both
Inhofe amendments to the Defense Authorization Bill, along with any other
amendments to allow drilling for oil and gas in America’s Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. It is inappropriate to consider such a divisive and
damaging policy during this time of national crisis. Additionally, drilling
in the Arctic Refuge would not produce oil for roughly ten years, and would
do nothing now or ten years from now to increase our national security or
reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

HOW ELSE YOU CAN HELP
- Recruit your friends and neighbors to the cause! Walk next door and ask
your neighbor to make a call about this important issue. If you have a cell
phone, bring it along.
- If you are a student, get your friends to donate the use of their cell
phones for an impromptu call in day. Have literature available and ask
people who walk by to call.
- Write a letter to the editor of your local paper.
- Call your Senators' local offices (numbers are in the phone book)
- If your Senator supports protecting the Arctic Refuge, write him or her a
thoughtful letter. Be sure to include your name, address, and phone number
at the bottom and the words “you have my permission to read this letter on
the Senate floor.” Maybe they’ll read it as part of a filibuster!
- For more information visit www.alaskawild.org, or contact Jen Schmidt with
the Alaska Wilderness League at jen@alaskawild.org .

TALKING POINTS
The following talking points are great for letters, letters to the editor,
and for better understanding the Arctic Refuge debate.

- America cannot drill its way to energy independence. The U.S. has at most
2-3% of the world's oil reserves while accounting for 25% of the world's oil
consumption. It is simply not possible to produce our way to oil
independence, even if we sacrifice all of our wilderness, parks, refuges,
and coastlines. The only way to reduce dependence on foreign oil is through
conservation and alternative energy supplies.

- The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that oil recovered from the Arctic
Refuge would amount to less than a six month supply for American consumers.
At no time would oil from the refuge be expected to amount to more than
about 2 percent of US demand. We would still need to import over half of our
oil from foreign countries.

- Under any circumstances, Arctic drilling cannot respond to our immediate
or near term needs for national security. It would take seven to ten years
to bring Arctic Refuge oil to market. There is no justification whatsoever
for “rushing to judgment” on the Arctic Refuge in response to the terrorist
attacks.

- Conservation, increasing fuel efficiency and alternative energy are much
better national security measures than drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
Alternative energy facilities can be smaller, dispersed and easily rebuilt.

- America does need a sound national energy policy, but we simply can’t
drill our way to lower prices or energy independence. There are reliable
and sensible means of achieving these ends – such as energy conservation,
alternative energies and improved energy efficiency - which can reduce our
dependence on oil without sacrificing environmental protection.

- Recently, a lot of emphasis has been placed on the number of jobs that
would be generated by drilling in the Arctic Refuge coastal plain.
Unfortunately, the numbers commonly touted by those in favor of drilling
(750,000 jobs) come from a flawed 1990 study commissioned by the American
Petroleum Institute (API). According to subsequent independent studies, the
API study used highly questionable economic analysis and exaggerated
estimates. A 1994 study by the Economic Policy Institute concluded that the
total number of jobs generated by drilling in the refuge would be fewer than
8 percent than what the API study predicted, and even those would last only
five years. Meanwhile, a 1993 study, conducted by the Tellus Institute for
The Wilderness Society, concluded that initiatives to improve vehicle fuel
efficiency and non-transport energy efficiency would result in nearly 10
times as many jobs as drilling in the Arctic Refuge.

ACTIVIST RESOURCES

Take Action at http://www.alaskawild.org

Don’t know who your Representative is? Find out at
http://www.house.gov/writerep

Have your members of Congress cosponsored the Arctic Wilderness Bills
H.R.770 / S.411? Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ then type in the bill number.
Cosponsors are listed under “bill summary and status.

U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

Senate Address: The Honorable _______, US Senate, Washington, DC 20510

House Address: The Honorable _______,US House of Representatives,
Washington, DC 20515

Contacting the President: George W. Bush, The White House, Washington DC
20500

White House Comment Desk: (202) 456-1111, Fax: (202) 456-2461

Call Sir John Browne, CEO of BP Amoco, 1-800 U-TELL-BP

Send a letter to the editor of your local paper at
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/letterstoeditor/index.html

Send a FREE fax to protect Alaska’s Rainforest at www.akrain.org

Published on Monday, October 1, 2001 in the Seattle Times
Environmental Issues Will Resurface As Truce Ends
by Elizabeth Shogren and Deborah Schoch of the Los Angeles Times

Stilled by the events of Sept. 11, strong disagreements over the environment
could resurface as early as this week to test the political truce in
Washington, D.C.
Lawmakers are poised to resume a partisan fight over oil drilling in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And as they return to the nation's domestic
agenda, they must contend with global warming, national forest protections,
arsenic in drinking water and air quality.

All are issues that had put the environment near the center of the policy
divide separating the White House and congressional Democrats.

That divide all but disappeared, or so it seemed, as Washington came together
in response to the terrorist attacks.

Major environmental groups laid down their swords, some purging their Web
sites of anti-Bush rhetoric, delaying direct-mail appeals and encouraging
members to redirect donations to rescue efforts, such as the American Red
Cross.

Now, signs of renewed strife are emerging as some Senate Republicans seek to
make domestic energy a national-security issue, and dissenters rise to argue
that a national emergency does not require sacrificing environmental goals.

That discord could erupt when the Senate reconvenes this week, and especially
if Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, joins Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., in
trying to force a vote on an energy bill that would allow oil drilling in the
Arctic Refuge.

Many environmentalists hope to delay a vote on the entire energy package
until early next year. Inhofe tried to force the Senate to vote last week on
the energy legislation by filing an amendment on an unrelated
defense-authorization bill. The effort by Inhofe and others brought that bill
to a standstill.

When the Senate adjourned for a long weekend, Inhofe had not given up on his
plan to offer the amendment unless he gets a commitment from the Senate
leadership to take up energy legislation by a date certain.

"I will not agree ... to attempts to force through a one-sided energy bill or
to short-circuit Senate consideration of these important issues," said Sen.
Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Senate Energy Committee chairman.

Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., Environment and Public Works chairman, warned his
colleagues that Inhofe's amendments could hurt public health and
environmental quality and raise greenhouse-gas emissions at a time when the
United States faces international criticism for failing to pay serious
attention to climate-change issues.

But Murkowski said last week that the new war against terrorism makes it
imperative that the United States develop oil reserves on its own soil,
decreasing dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Since Sept. 11, lobbyists on
both sides of the energy debate have remained relatively quiet.

But for environmentalists, the energy bill could be the point at which any
truce ends. For them, the challenge is how to be loyal Americans at the time
of national emergency while still being true to their values and to their
supporters.

Before Sept. 11, the issue of global warming also loomed large.

Bush was receiving widespread public criticism for rejecting the Kyoto
accord, the international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases.

The administration was under pressure to produce a U.S. strategy to unveil at
the next international climate-control meeting, scheduled for late next month
in Marrakech, Morocco.

But some of the administration's strongest advocates of a global-warming
policy — Secretary of State Colin Powell and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill
— are deeply involved in the immediate crisis.

The United States still plans to send a delegation to Marrakech, but
expectations are not high that the administration will produce a viable
option to Kyoto.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is delaying introduction
of legislation that would change the federal government's approach to
regulating pollution from power plants.

The EPA had said it would release its blueprint in September for controlling
mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen-oxide emissions from power plants.

But EPA spokesman Dave Ryan last week said the schedule for that initiative —
and many others — had slipped as a result of the terrorist attacks. Now the
target for producing the administration's plan is sometime this fall, he
said.

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US senator pushes for drilling in Alaskan refuge
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USA: October 1, 2001

WASHINGTON - A leading Republican lawmaker last week welcomed OPEC's decision
to maintain production levels, but said the U.S. needs to boost its own
energy supplies by opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, said the attacks in New York and
Washington on Sept. 11 have made it crucial for the United States to open the
Arctic refuge to ensure the oil supplies and economic growth.
Supporters of drilling in ANWR estimate the Alaskan wilderness area could
contain up to 16 billion barrels of oil, equal to the amount of crude the
United States imports from Iraq for 70 years.

"We're highly dependent on foreign oil and any glitch in that system would
find us in a desperate situation with our economy and our people," Craig told
reporters on Capitol Hill.

"The reality is we can drill in ANWR, and we can do it safely," added Craig,
who was joined by several union and manufacturing representatives.

Republican lawmakers have lobbied for opening the refuge to help reduce U.S.
dependence on oil imports, especially shipments from the powerful OPEC cartel.

With the world economy struggling, OPEC producers on Thursday left oil
production levels unchanged, waiting until November to decide whether to cut
output to lift slumping crude prices.

The announcement was applauded by Craig and other lawmakers including Energy
Secretary Spencer Abraham who said a cut would have further hit an already
depressed economy.

"They recognize this flat economy worldwide, and they could have made it a
lot flatter if they lowered production," Craig said.

The Senate Energy Committee has yet to resume debate on a comprehensive
energy bill, and with about a month left before Congress adjourns, a vote by
the full chamber is not imminent.

Sen. Frank Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, has pushed a stripped-down
version of the bill that includes opening up the refuge, and offering
incentives to aid U.S. electric, coal, natural gas and nuclear energy
production.

But Democrat Jeff Bingaman from New Mexico, who heads the Senate Energy
Committee, said he wants to stick with a broader plan that includes electric
restructuring and energy conservation measures.

Craig said ANWR is no longer a "sticking point" within the Senate, and a
drafted energy bill would likely blend several provisions from Murkowski and
Bingaman's bills.

"All of the components are there, it is simply the will of the leadership to
produce (legislation) that is holding it up," said Craig, who would like to
send a final bill to the president this year before Congress adjourns.

In another measure to boost U.S. oil supplies, Congress also has considered
purchasing oil for the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserves.

With the sharp drop to oil prices in recent weeks, an opportunity to increase
emergency reserves would be a bigger buffer to a disruption in U.S. crude
supplies.

Rep. Joe Barton said Tuesday the House might consider legislation to increase
oil reserves if prices drop a few dollars below their recent level of $22 per
barrel.

Craig said that while there were no plans to introduce a similar proposal in
the Senate, it is something they could "absolutely" consider at some point.

"It's a time when we might just see a market of lower crude prices, and that
is an opportunity," he said.

Story by Christopher Doering

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

Murkowski set to stall Senate
ANWR: Senator says energy bill vital, wants it to come to floor soon.

By Liz Ruskin
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: September 28, 2001)
Washington -- In a bid to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil
drilling, Sen. Frank Murkowski has threatened to stall Senate business unless
Democratic leaders agree to proceed with an energy bill.

"I am prepared to hold up normal legislative business to get an energy bill
to the floor," Murkowski, R-Alaska, said in a written statement this week. A
spokesman said Murkowski

hasn't specified exactly how he would do that.

The bills that Congress is considering include responses to the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks, such as possible sanctions against countries that support
terrorists and a bill aimed at stimulating the economy.

"In my view, energy is just as important to our nation's immediate and
long-term interests," Murkowski said. "It seems to me that energy also fits
in with any economic stimulus or national security package under
consideration."

The Senate is also working on a bill authorizing next year's defense
programs. Murkowski said he has warned the Senate leadership that he'll
object to moving the defense authorization bill unless he gets a commitment
on energy.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle pulled the $345 billion defense bill off
the floor this week because Republicans would not agree on which amendments
should be debated.

Among the amendments standing in the way are two by Sen. James Inhofe,
R-Okla., that would tack a Republican energy bill, including ANWR drilling,
to the defense bill.

Murkowski initially rejected that tactic. Last week, when Congress was trying
to respond to the terror attacks with a united front, he said it would be
"inappropriate and in poor taste."

This week, though, both Murkowski and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said the
energy amendments should not be taken down without assurances that the Senate
will consider an energy bill later.

The oil in the refuge, which could be as much as 16 billion barrels, would
make the country less dependent on oil from the Middle East, Murkowski says
in arguing that ANWR is important to national energy security.

Another of his arguments: If America goes to war, it will need lots of fuel.

The House has already passed an energy bill that would allow drilling in the
refuge.

Environmentalists and congressional opponents of ANWR drilling say that the
refuge doesn't hold enough oil to make a dent in crude imports but that
developing fuel-efficient cars and alternative energy would be effective. It
would take a decade for ANWR oil to hit the market, so it is irrelevant to
any impending war, they say.

Daschle said approval of the defense authorization bill is urgent.

"Our troops are counting on it. The Pentagon needs it," he said Wednesday. He
had hoped for speedy passage of the bill to show the world that Congress is
united on defense.

Energy policy is also important and he intends to address it, Daschle said.

"But we just can't say today when that will be," he said.

Murkowski said he has heard that Democrats are considering taking up energy
in February. That's unacceptable, he said.

His spokesman, Chuck Kleeschulte, said the defense authorization bill is
blocked by other amendments and Murkowski hasn't yet impeded any legislation.

"We're not really holding up anything," Kleeschulte said.

Murkowski has not threatened to filibuster.

"Senator Murkowski has not made clear" what method he would use, Kleeschulte
said. "There are any number of ways senators can delay normal Senate
business," he said.

Nor would Kleeschulte say what constitutes the sort of "normal legislative
business" Murkowski is considering holding up.

He wouldn't say, for example, whether Murkowski would also consider slowing
the annual defense spending bill, the measure that actually appropriates
money to the military.

"I have no answer to that," he said.

A lone senator or a small group of senators can bog the process down -- by
requiring votes on routine matters or by requiring the clerk to read a bill
in its entirety, for example -- but unless they have significant support,
they can be steamrolled by the majority.

Reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at 1-202-383-0007 or lruski@nadn.com.

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