This past quarter, Republicans in Congress played a key role in keeping Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling revenues out of House and Senate budget resolutions, heading off a back-door maneuver to open America's largest wildlife refuge to oil production. Including revenues from the Refuge in the resolutions could have led to congressional approval of oil drilling through budget “reconciliation” legislation, which is subject to narrow debating rules and is difficult to block.
As REP has argued for years, drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge is not a panacea for reducing this country’s dangerous dependence on foreign oil.
The Department of Energy’s own analysis has shown that
c National Wildlife Refuge would make an insignificant 4% dent in oil imports (down from today’s 70% to only 66% by 2025). A far more effective solution would be improving motor vehicle fuel efficiency, which also would save consumers money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
We are grateful to the following Republican senators and representatives who signed letters urging budget committees to keep Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling revenues out of the budget resolutions:
AZ Senator John McCain
CT Representative Nancy Johnson, Representative Christopher Shays
IA Representative Jim Leach
IL Senator Peter Fitzgerald, Representative Timothy Johnson, Representative Mark Kirk
MD Representative Wayne Gilchrest
ME Senator Susan Collins, Senator Olympia Snowe
MI Representative Vern Ehlers
NH Representative Charles Bass, Representative Jeb Bradley
NJ Representative Jim Saxton
NY Representative Sherwood Boehlert
PA Representative Jim Gerlach, Representative Jim Greenwood
RI Senator Lincoln Chafee
Representatives Roscoe Bartlett (MD), Michael Ferguson (NJ) and James Walsh (NY) also supported keeping Arctic revenues out of the budget resolution.
If any of these congressmen and senators is ?yours,? please thank him or her for standing up for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge!
