DEFENDING AMERICA'S ARCTIC —This fall, the nation’s environmental leaders gathered to strongly oppose congressional attempts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. Pictured here are Carl Pope, of the Sierra Club; Gene Karpinski, of Georgia PIRG’s Washington, D.C., office; Rodger Schlickeisen, of Defenders of Wildlife; and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

On Nov. 9, in the face of bi-partisan opposition, the House leadership dropped Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling language from their budget reconciliation bill.

Georgia PIRG celebrated the move as another victory in a broad-based coalition’s 15-year campaign to protect America’s Arctic from oil and gas drilling.

The decision to keep the Arctic Refuge drilling provision out of the budget came after months of intensive work by PIRG staff in Georgia and across the country.

PIRG staff worked with Reps. Nancy Johnson (Conn.) and Sherwood Boehlert (N.Y.) to rally Republicans in the House.

The deciding factor for the House leadership came when 26 Republicans signed a letter, written by Rep. Charlie Bass of New Hampshire, urging the budget committee to keep Arctic drilling out of the budget reconciliation bill.

In addition to Reps. Johnson, Boehlert and Bass, the pro-drilling language met with especially strong opposition from Republican Jeb Bradley (N.H.), and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.), who kept the Democrats in the House united against the budget bill put forth by the House leadership.

Rep. David Reichert’s (Wash.) decision to oppose including Arctic Refuge drilling in the budget highlights the importance of citizen support for the Refuge.

At a press conference with other Republicans, Rep. Reichert said that his office received more than 1,600 phone calls on the budget, and 95 percent of those calls asked him to vote against the budget if it included Arctic Refuge drilling language.

“That press conference put pro-drilling members of the Senate such as Senators Domenici and Stevens on notice that their budget reconciliation bill, which included Arctic drilling, would be dead on arrival in conference,” said Athan Manuel, chief advocate on the issue in Georgia PIRG’s Washington, D.C., office. “It was an historic and impressive show of strength from a bipartisan group of Arctic champions.”

The House Democratic caucus was also united in keeping the Arctic provision out of the final budget reconciliation bill. Arctic advocates worked closely with Minority Leader Pelosi, Rep. Hoyer and Rep. Ed Markey (Mass.) to keep the caucus united.

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, members of Congress had been pushing not only for drilling in the Arctic, but also for drilling off the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, despite a decades-old moratorium that protected the coasts from drilling.

Georgia PIRG and other PIRGs worked to counter efforts to drill in pristine and protected places like the Arctic, and worked to show Congress the benefits of conservation, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

“The truth is that energy efficiency could save more oil than all the oil we could ever drill in the Arctic Refuge,” said Georgia PIRG’s Jill Johnson. “Drilling in the Refuge is not only objectionable on environmental grounds, it’s unnecessary.”

Final Decision to Be Made
As this newsletter went to print, leaders of both houses of Congress were meeting in a conference committee to work out a final budget bill.

While many members of Congress have vowed to vote against a conference report that includes Arctic drilling, Georgia PIRG will continue to monitor the conference committee.

This is the fifth time in the last 15 years that pro-drilling members of Congress have pushed to allow drilling in the Arctic Refuge.

“The decision to drop drilling from the budget is a huge win for America’s Arctic and the American people, who deserve real solutions to our energy problems—ones that don’t sacrifice our environment,” said Manuel.