Victory! U.S. Senate Rejects Arctic Refuge Oil Drilling Bill!

4/18/02

The Struggle Continues

This vote by the Senate makes it unlikely that drilling in the Refuge will make it into any final energy plan, however, drilling there has already passed the House, so it will remain on the table as part of the Senate-House negotiations. We must continue to fight against any moves by the U.S. Governement to open up drilling on the sacred and traditional lands of the Gwich'in people. Stay tuned for future action alerts from Greenaction, the Gwich'in Steering Committee and other organizations waging the battle against development in the Refuge.

For More Information: Visit the Gwich'in Steering Committee's Website at: www.alaska.net/~gwichin/ and other Gwich'in websites at www.oldcrow.yk.net/

See Also:

Stop Plans by George W. Bush and the Oil Industry to Drill for Oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge! Act Today!

For more information, contact:

Bradley Angel Greenaction

(415) 248-5010

Defeat for Oil Industry and George W. Bush!

The United States Senate by a wide margin on Thursday rejected oil development in an Arctic wildlife refuge that has been a centerpiece of the Bush administration's energy agenda. This is a big victory for the environmental movement and the Gwich'in Nation in Alaska and Canada that have fought for years to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling plans.

Senate Republicans fell 14 votes short, 54-46, of the 60 needed to break a Democratic filibuster and allow a vote on an amendment to open the wildlife refuge to oil companies.

Given the vote, the amendment's sponsors were expected to withdraw it, clearing the way for approval of an energy bill by the Senate, possibly next week.

The size of the Republican defeat, with pro-drilling forces falling short of even a majority, signaled that oil development of the Alaska refuge may be dead in Congress for this year.

As expected, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said President Bush would continue to fight for opening the refuge.

Greenaction will join the alliance of Native and environmental groups in keeping the pressure on to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from any future attempts to try to win approval for the oil drilling plan.

Eight Republicans joined most Democrats in opposing the drilling measure. Five Democrats supported the drilling amendment, offered by the two Alaska senators.

While the House last summer approved drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, that bill will have to be reconciled with legislation expected to be passed by the Senate. Drilling supporters in Congress and at the White House have worried that a poor showing in the Senate might jeopardize getting a drilling measure out of the House-Senate negotiations. Drilling supporters argued the refuge's oil was essential for America's energy security and its development would produce tens of thousands of jobs. But Democrats said no oil would flow for a decade and would have little impact in oil imports or fuel prices.

Bush repeatedly has argued that the oil can be extracted without harming the environment or wildlife, and he has cited Iraq's current oil embargo as proof that new drilling is needed more than ever. But environmentalists and many Senate Democrats, as well as a handful of GOP senators,argued the oil can be found elsewhere without risking the refuge and its wildlife, including a herd of 123,000 caribou that calves each year on the coastal plain.