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Defenders Magazine
Defenders in Action: Arctic refuge in Bull's-Eye Again
The 108th Congress has only just begun and already oil corporations are renewing their campaign to drill in America's premiere wildlife sanctuary -- the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Defenders of Wildlife is again helping lead efforts to save the refuge for future generations.
Big Oil's allies in Congress, strengthened by the 2002 election results, are hatching a back-door scheme to hide their measure in the massive federal budget bill. But last year's bipartisan Senate vote to reject drilling reflected the wishes of a solid majority of Americans, and a new national poll shows the public remains strongly opposed to drilling in the refuge.
By a two-to-one margin, according to the poll conducted by Bellwether Research & Consulting and Lake, Snell, Perry & Associates, voters reject an argument to open the refuge even in the case of impending war with Iraq and a possible cut-off of part of America's supply of oil from the Middle East. And voters overwhelmingly agree that a proposal to include drilling within the pending federal budget bill amounts to back-door political maneuvering.
Six Republican senators, meanwhile, have sent a letter to GOP leaders opposing inclusion in the budget bill of any language that would give oil companies access to the refuge. The six are Olympia Snowe of Maine, John McCain of Arizona, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Susan Collins of Maine, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois.
Oil companies want to drill on the refuge's fragile coastal plain, the biological heart of this magnificent wilderness. That would destroy homes of polar bears, musk oxen, wolves, millions of migratory birds, caribou and hundreds of other species.
In return, the United States would gain only enough oil to last for six months by current rates of consumption, and that oil wouldn't become available for 10 years.
Help save America's last great stronghold for wildlife. To urge your senators not to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, visit Save Arctic Refuge.
