Bluestem Action Alert for March 3, 2005

Sneaky Tactic Imperils the Arctic!

A backdoor tactic of the Bush administration to hide legislation to drill in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the budget bill will be voted on the week of March 14.

Budget legislation is the only legislation that cannot be filibustered or debated extensively. This sneaky attempt puts the Arctic in great peril. It not only defies the democratic process, but it reveals the fundamental weakness of the push for drilling: proponents of drilling know they cannot pass drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge through the normal legislative process, so they are resorting to a procedural tactic to prohibit an open and honest debate. Destroying the Arctic stands in direct opposition to the will of the American people, the majority of whom have consistently opposed drilling in America’s Arctic Wildlife Refuge.

Please contact your U.S. representative and both Illinois senators this week and tell them that you oppose hijacking the budget process to open the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling; that you expect them to vote against ANY legislation that includes provisions to open it - from the budget bill to the energy bill to free-standing legislation! Remind them that drilling in the Arctic Refuge would ruin one of our last wild places for about six months of oil that wouldn’t even be available for ten years or more! Only five percent of the Arctic is not already open to drilling. The little that is currently protected in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is simply too precious to waste.

Your federal representative’s name and contact information, as well as an email link, may be accessed by clicking on the following site and in-putting your address: http://www.elections.state.il.us/dls/pages/DLSAddresscrit.asp

Barack Obama may be called in Washington D.C. at 202-224-2854 or in Chicago at 312-886-3506. He can be emailed from the following site: http://obama.senate.gov/contact

Sen. Dick Durbin may be called in Washington D.C. at 202-224-2152 or in Chicago at 312-353-4952. He can be emailed from the following site: http://durbin.senate.gov/sitepages/contact.cfm

This may be the most important vote ever for the Artic. Our elected officials need to hear from us and they need to hear loudly. Please make these important calls today.

Thank you.