Oppose the FY 2007 Budget Resolution Because It Threatens the Arctic Refuge
03/16/06

U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Senator:

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is the political voice of the national environmental community. Each year, LCV publishes the National Environmental Scorecard, which details the voting records of Members of Congress on environmental legislation. The Scorecard is distributed to LCV members, concerned voters nationwide, and the press.

LCV urges you to oppose the FY 2007 budget resolution, which includes an assumption of revenues from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Arctic-only reconciliation instructions to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.  A vote for a budget resolution that includes an assumption of oil drilling or reconciliation instructions to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is a vote for drilling in the Arctic Refuge.  We also urge you to support any efforts to strike the drilling language from the bill.

Protecting the Arctic Refuge is among the highest priorities for the national environmental community.  Drilling in this incomparable wilderness would threaten polar bears, grizzlies, migratory birds, and the 130,000-member Porcupine caribou herd as well as the subsistence culture of 7,000 Gwich’in people.  As the recent spill in Alaska’s North Slope demonstrates, the environmental consequences of drilling can be devastating.

Drilling in the Arctic Refuge would pose a grave threat to this national treasure, but it would not solve our energy problems.  The United States has less than 3% of the world’s proven oil reserves but consumes 25% of the world’s oil, so we cannot drill our way to energy independence. Instead of destroying our last wild places, Congress should pursue sensible solutions to our energy problems like increasing fuel economy for automobiles.

We urge you to protect the Arctic Refuge by voting NO on the FY 2007 budget resolution because it includes an assumption of drilling revenues and reconciliation instructions to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.  LCV has scored votes on the Arctic Refuge on numerous occasions in the last two decades, and the Political Advisory Committee will strongly consider including this vote in compiling LCV’s 2005 Scorecard.  If you need more information, please call Tiernan Sittenfeld at my office at (202) 785-8683.

Sincerely,

Gene Karpinski
President, LCV