Passage of Budget Resolution Conference Report Threatens the Arctic Refuge

On April 28th, both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate passed a Budget Resolution Conference Report (a combination of the two separate budgets that each chamber passed in March) that paves the way for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Although the budget resolution does not mention the Refuge by name, it includes open-ended instructions to the House Resources and Senate Energy and Resources Committees to find new sources of revenue. That seems harmless enough, except that the chairmen of those committees have made it abundantly clear that they intend to meet those instructions by opening the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling. And by doing this through the budget process, rather than through a free-standing piece of legislation, the chairmen circumvent the normal 60-vote requirement for controversial legislation in the Senate.

Over the past several weeks, hundreds of thousands of Americans have called, written letters, e-mailed, and faxed their representatives in Washington to voice their opposition to Arctic Refuge drilling. Today, Defenders of Wildlife urges you to pick up the phone again and encourage your Senators and your Representative to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, because this fight is not over! See how your Representative and Senators voted on this budget bill.

Defenders of Wildlife will continue to fight every step of the way, using every procedural and legislative option at our disposal, to ensure that Congress ultimately listens to the majority of Americans and rejects every effort to include Arctic Refuge drilling in the reconciliation bill.

There are some places that should be off-limits to oil drilling and industrial development, and the Arctic Refuge is one of them. Drilling would do nothing to reduce gas prices or alleviate our dependence on foreign oil, yet the harm to wildlife habitat for polar bear, caribou, and millions of migratory birds and to the people of the Gwich'in Nation whose subsistence culture is based on the caribou would be permanent and irreparable. We have a moral responsibility to save wild places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for future generations. That's why our country has remained committed to its protection for nearly 50 years.