[mou] conservation

[fredericksonr@willmar.k12.mn.us]

Many MOU members stated strong opinions to me re. oil drilling in the ANWR.
Those individuals may be interested in reading the statement below.  It
comes from Scott Hed of the Alaska Coalition.

Randy Frederickson
Conservation Com.


>Please read the following alert and news article regarding the
>last-minute arm-twisting that is going on to secure pro-drilling votes
>in the Senate.
>
>Coleman is specifically listed as one of a few Senators that the White
>House is pressuring to change their position.
>
>WE CANNOT LET HIM OFF THE HOOK!  He has stated numerous times in the
>press and in countless letters back to constituents that he remains
>opposed to drilling in the Arctic Refuge.  Now he'll have the chance to
>prove it in his first vote on the issue, which is likely less than a
>week away.
>
>Make the call yourself and ask your friends, family, and colleagues to
>do the same.  This is extremely important.
>
>Coleman's office numbers:
>	202-224-5641	DC
>	651-645-0323	St. Paul
>
>Scott Hed
>Plains, Prairie & Northland Organizer
>Alaska Coalition
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Deborah L. Williams [mailto:dwilliams@akcf.org]
>Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 7:56 PM
>Subject: Arctic Refuge At Risk!!!
>Importance: High
>
>Dear Friends of the Arctic Refuge,
>
>The Refuge needs your help!!  This is VERY serious.
>
>As you may know, the conservation community has been preparing for a
>vote on the future of the Arctic Refuge in the context of the Budget
>Resolution process.  This is a very inappropriate legislative vehicle to
>address the Arctic Refuge, and is being used by the Administration and
>others because it is a stealth tactic and because the budget resolution
>cannot be filibustered in the Senate.
>
>The time for this vote is drawing near -- we expect it to occur next
>Tuesday or Wednesday.
>
>Today, an e-mail, apparently from Senator Frist's office, said that the
>pro-drilling advocates had 49 votes, and were working hard to get the
>last vote.  (They only need 50 to win.)
>
>We do not believe that they have 49 votes, but it is clear that we must
>immediately communicate with all Senators -- especially Senator Pryor
>(ARK), Coleman (MN), Smith (ORE), Specter (PA), and Lugar (IND) -- to
>let them know that:
>
>	-Our nation's extraordinary, irreplaceable Arctic National
>Wildlife Refuge must not be destroyed for a mere 6 month's of oil, that
>will not be available for 10 years;
>	--Congress should not, under any circumstances, put an issue as
>important as the Arctic Refuge on a budget bill;
>	--Just last week the nation's leading scientists in a Report
>ordered by Congress unanimously agreed that the cumulative impacts from
>drilling in other parts of Alaska's North Slope have been significant
>and adverse.
>
>I am attaching an AP story -- hot off the press -- that describes the
>Frist e-mail in more detail.
>
>This Senate vote is ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL.  We cannot lose it.  The Refuge
>is truly at stake.  Please call or e-mail your senators today and ask
>them to oppose including any Arctic Refuge drilling provision in the
>Budget Resolution, and please pass on this e-mail to friends and others
>and ask them to call their senators too.
>
>Thank you,
>Deborah
>
>
>
>
>Bush Closer to Drilling in Arctic Refuge
>
>By H. JOSEF HEBERT
>.c The Associated Press
>
>WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans say they have moved to within a
>single
>vote of guaranteeing President Bush one of his top domestic priorities -
>
>opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
>
>The issue could be decided as early as next week.
>
>An internal GOP memo that circulated Tuesday in the Senate expressed
>confidence that 49 senators now plan to vote for drilling in the refuge,
>
>starting a scramble in search of the remaining lawmaker who would be
>needed
>to get the provision through as part of a budget measure.
>
>``Dick Cheney has been working madly to secure the 50th (vote),'' said
>the
>staff memo developed in the offices of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
>of
>Tennessee and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.
>
>The House is expected to have enough votes to pass the drilling
>provision,
>but House leaders are reluctant to take up the issue - and expose some
>lawmakers to the politically sensitive vote - unless the Senate takes
>the
>lead, congressional sources said.
>
>The matter could be decided by one of four senators - two Republicans
>and two
>Democrats - who have been leaning toward the anti-drilling camp, but who
>GOP
>leaders believe might be persuaded to shift sides, said sources from
>both
>parties speaking on condition of anonymity.
>
>The sources said Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both
>of
>Arkansas, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and freshman Sen. Norm Coleman,
>R-Minn.,
>have been subjected to intense behind-the-scenes lobbying to join the
>pro-drilling side.
>
>A spokeswoman for Coleman - who succeeded the late Paul Wellstone, a
>strong
>critic of drilling in the refuge - said she could not comment on the
>memo or
>Coleman's views on the refuge. Spokesmen for the other three could not
>be
>reached Tuesday evening.
>
>Singling out Coleman, Lincoln and Pryor by name, the GOP memo said, ``We
>need
>to get calls in to those offices from constituents, and fast.''
>
>Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Gale Norton called a half dozen interest
>groups
>- including farming and union interests - to her office and urged them
>to go
>to Capitol Hill and ``knock on doors and help sell the message'' on
>Arctic
>drilling to fence-sitting senators.
>
>Development of the millions of barrels of oil believed to be under the
>coastal plain of the refuge in the far northeastern corner of Alaska has
>been
>at the core of Bush's energy agenda.
>
>On the other hand, protecting the 100-mile-long sliver of tundra has
>been an
>obsession for environmentalists who insist that drilling will destroy
>its
>value as a sanctuary for polar bears, musk oxen, caribou and migratory
>birds.
>
>Norton, in testimony before a House committee Wednesday, will reiterate
>that
>the refuge's oil can be developed ``while protecting the environmental
>values
>we all hold dear.'' In her prepared testimony, she calls the refuge's
>coastal
>plain ``the single greatest prospect for onshore oil and gas development
>
>anyplace in the United States'' and says its development is essential
>for
>national security.
>
>In the last Congress, the House approved drilling in the refuge, but the
>
>issue died in the Senate. Democrats, led by presidential aspirants Sens.
>Joe
>Lieberman of Connecticut and John Kerry of Massachusetts, vowed to
>filibuster
>any drilling proposal, meaning supporters would need 60 votes to get the
>
>measure passed.
>
>Now that Republicans control the Senate, drilling advocates are
>maneuvering
>to include the provision in a budget resolution that is not subject to
>filibuster. Once in the resolution, it will take drilling opponents 51
>votes
>to get it out. Such a maneuver succeeded in getting the drilling
>approved by
>Congress in 1995, but President Clinton vetoed it.
>
>The Senate Budget Committee was expected to approve a resolution,
>including a
>drilling provision, this week. Senate floor debate is expected to begin
>next
>week and wrap up in April. Frist ``has called for accounting of 50 votes
>by
>Wednesday,'' said the GOP staff memo. ``Today we have 49.''
>