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REP supports protecting the Arctic National Wildife Refuge

by REP Policy Director Jim DiPeso
delivered at a press conference, Seattle, Washington; June 5, 2001

Good morning. My name is Jim DiPeso. I’m with Republicans for Environmental Protection. We’re a group of ordinary citizens trying to bring the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt down from the Republican attic. We have members across the nation and a chapter here in Washington.

We strongly oppose drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We support bipartisan legislation that would designate the coastal plain as federally protected wilderness. The bipartisan legislation is sponsored by Rep. Nancy Johnson of Connecticut, eight other House Republicans, and on the Senate side by Jim Jeffords. Like Rep. Johnson and Senator Jeffords, we believe that conservation of the Arctic refuge is the conservative thing to do.

Regardless of how much oil lies beneath the coastal plain, oil production in the refuge is fundamentally incompatible with its central purpose. President Eisenhower set aside the refuge in 1960 for wildlife conservation. We see no compelling reason to change President Eisenhower’s decision. Oil wells do not belong in a wildlife sanctuary.

We strongly disagree with our president that producing oil from the Arctic refuge would improve our nation’s energy security. In fact, we think that drilling the refuge would actually weaken our security, by perpetuating our dependence on oil. Regardless of how much oil could be extracted from the refuge, we will always be dangerously dependent on foreign sources as long as we use so much of it so inefficiently.

Efficiency must be the basis of our nation’s energy policy. It’s well past time to raise motor vehicle fuel efficiency standards, especially for light trucks and SUV’s. We support Republican Congressman Sherwood Boehlert’s bipartisan bill, HR 1815, to require light trucks and SUV’s to meet the same fuel efficiency standards as cars. This common sense measure would free up about the same amount of oil as would be produced in the refuge.

We must diversify our energy sources. The United States can lead in perfecting and selling commercial-scale wind, solar, biomass, and fuel cell technologies. Good for business. Good for the environment.

The Arctic refuge is part of our country’s natural heritage. There is simply no other place like it anywhere in America. Nearly a century ago, Theodore Roosevelt looked out across the Grand Canyon and said, "I want to ask you to do one thing in connection with it in your own interest and in the interest of the country – to keep this great wonder of nature as it is. You cannot improve it. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it."

What TR said about the Grand Canyon goes for the Arctic refuge, truly one of America’s great places. Thank you.