Another Attack on ANWR

[T]here remains one very important piece of this radical agenda that is still unresolved -the fate of

the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The latest word continues to be that Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is not asking, but demanding,

that the Refuge be opened to full-scale drilling as part of the final Reconciliation package. Stevens feels so strongly about this and

other Alaska issues that in the past he has threatened to resign. Hopefully when Arctic drilling is defeated, he will.

Just

yesterday, when it became clear to Stevens that he did not have the votes to keep the Arctic bill in the Budget Appropriations, he moved

the bill into the Defense Appropriations Bill, thus tying Arctic drilling to money for our troops in Iraq. Senator Stevens’

ploys are a disgrace and he must be stopped.

Stevens and the President know that this is their last and best chance to

open the Refuge to full-scale development. They will use our recent victories as yet another reason to plow forward with this disgraceful

proposal. As a Senator, Stevens has one of the worst voting records on the environment. In 1999-2000 he received a 0% by the League of

Conservation Voters and has supported cuts in funding for environmental and natural resource programs, pushed tirelessly for drilling in

the Arctic Refuge, lobbied hard for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, (a wildlife Mecca), to be opened to dramatic levels of drilling and

opposed nuclear waste cleanup.

Preventing drilling is going to require a massive outpouring of calls and faxes.

Please take the time and let our Senators and Congresswoman Wilson know that drilling in the Arctic Refuge will not bring down the price

of oil or make us more energy secure. But it will destroy perhaps the wildest and most sacred wildlife grounds in our country. All so

that Exxon and BP can add a little more to their bottom line.

You can make the difference, the time is now.

Stephen Capra

Executive Director
NM Wilderness Alliance

Please call our Representatives

Senator

Pete Domenici
(202) 224-6621
(505) 346-6791 (Albuquerque)

Senator Jeff Bingaman
(202) 224-5521
(505) 346-6601

(Albuquerque)

Congresswoman Heather Wilson
(202) 225-6316
(505) 346-6781 (Albuquerque)