[IPSM] Bush Team Readying Backdoor Route to Drill Arctic Refuge

[Macdonald Stainsby]

[I pass this on despite delusions about "natural energy sources" as well
as total lack of the real question: genocide of the Gwitch'in, Inuvialuit
and others, whose homelands would be attacked and whose cultural
livelihood and partners in the life cycle-- the caribou -- would be
decimated. The ANWR area is an amazing natural paradise, but it is also a
homeland for more than one nation... and none of them the United States.  
Macdonald.]
--

Bush Team Readying Backdoor Route to Drill Arctic Refuge

     BushGreenwatch.org via Truthout
http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/index.php
     Thursday 24 February 2005

     Having been thwarted repeatedly in its effort to open Alaska's Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling for oil, the Bush
Administration and its Congressional leadership have come up with a
plan for a sneak attack on the issue.

     Rather than holding a straightforward vote on the Senate floor, where
strong public opposition halted drilling in the past few years, House
and Senate members are quietly planning instead to attach the
drilling measure to upcoming budget legislation, where it would be
all but impossible to stop (budget bills are exempt from filibuster
or extended debate).

     This past Tuesday, SaveOurEnvironment.org , a national coalition for
the environment, said the planned maneuver demonstrates that
"proponents of
drilling know they cannot pass this through the normal legislative
process, so they are resorting to a procedural tactic to prohibit open and
honest debate."

     "Not only does this type of backdoor maneuver endanger the Arctic
Refuge, its wilderness and wildlife, it also poses a genuine threat
to the integrity of our democratic process," said Bill Meadows,
president of the Wilderness Society. The society reported that a
recent bipartisan national survey found Americans oppose drilling in
the refuge by a margin of 53 to 35.

     The refuge's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain - where drilling would
take place - is described as the "biological heart" of the refuge by
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is home to some 250 animal
species, including caribou, polar bears, grizzlies, musk oxen,
wolves, and millions of migratory birds.

     Despite the fact that it would take up to 10 years for any ANWR oil
to reach the market, the Bush Administration and its allies depict
such drilling as a way to ease America's current energy crisis.

     At the same time they refuse to consider such immediate answers as an
increase of only one mile-per-gallon in automobile fuel efficiency
standards, an easily attainable goal that would save a half-million
barrels of oil per day.

     Also shunned are such effective - and painless - steps as energy
efficiency, energy conservation, and greatly increased support for
alternatives such as wind power and solar energy.

     Environmental and conservation organizations are urging the public to
oppose the use of budget measures to achieve drilling in ANWR.

--
Macdonald Stainsby
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Brecht.