[IPSM] U.S. Senate rejects drilling in ANWR

[Macdonald Stainsby]

With all the bad news globally coming repeatedly, it's good to get good 
news about the sacred place where life begins repeatedly. For really, 
this is not just a fight for Caribou, but a fight against genocide as 
surely as anywhere else. Long live the Gwitch'in, part of the mighty 
Dené Nation!

Macdonald

U.S. Senate rejects drilling in ANWR
Last updated Dec 21 2005 08:47 AM MST
CBC News North

The U.S. Senate failed to muster enough votes Wednesday to pass a 
measure that would allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican, tried to include oil drilling 
in the wildlife refuge in a military budget bill.

Drilling supporters fell four votes short of getting the required 60 
votes they needed to avoid a filibuster over the oil drilling issue. 
Senate leaders were expected to withdraw the legislation so it could be 
reworked without the refuge language.

The chief of the Yukon's Vuntut Gwitchin, Joe Linklater, said he was 
relieved by the news but the fight is far from over.

"As long as there is a Republican majority in the House and in the 
Senate and as long as George Bush is president this issue will not go 
away for us," he said.

The military spending bill also included billions of dollars for 
Hurricane Katrina relief and billions more in home heating subsidies for 
the poor.

Linklater said before the vote that Stevens' effort to include drilling 
approvals with hurricane relief and heating subsidies was sneaky.

"It's appalling and I think he managed to bully his way in," said Linklater.

Stevens has spent 25 years trying to win a vote to allow oil rigs into 
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This latest attempt was the second 
this fall. An attempt to get ANWR drilling in a budget bill failed in 
November.
-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
    --Bertholt Brecht.