FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
November 9, 2005

Contacts:                                          
William Lutz     202.772.0269       
Deborah Bagocius 202.772.0239

Washington, DC – With the future of the budget reconciliation bill in doubt, the Republican leadership of the House today dropped language from the bill that would have authorized drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and language that would have lifted the 24 year Congressional moratorium on outer continental shelf oil and gas drilling. Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen welcomed the news of the victory, but warned that the refuge remains in jeopardy because conference committee members must now gather to reconcile the House version of the bill with the Senate version, which does contain Arctic drilling language.

"The House leadership finally realized that including language in the budget bill opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling only doomed it to failure," said Schlickeisen. "In the end, even hiding drilling language deep in the budget bill wasn’t enough to win support for this ill-advised and short-sighted policy."

"While we’re not out of the woods yet, we have every reason to believe that these pragmatic Members of Congress will continue to demonstrate strong leadership on this issue and, if necessary, vote against any final House-Senate Reconciliation Bill agreement that includes the Arctic Refuge," added Schlickeisen, "This continued opposition will demonstrate that the House action was the decisive event in our battle to protect the Refuge during this Congress."

"We call on Senators and Representatives on the conference committee to keep the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling language out of the final bill." Schlickeisen added, "Our national refuges were set aside to protect wildlife and wilderness for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations, not for the greedy exploitation of oil companies."