[mou] conservation

[MARTELL, Mark]

It might be important to note that a rider is supposed to be attached to =
the budget bill tomorrow (Thursday) that would allow drilling.

The time to call Senator Coleman it TODAY!!


Coleman's Washington D.C.phone number is 202-224-3121 and his district =
number is 651-645-0323.=20
=20
You may call either office - he will get the message.



Mark Martell
Director of Bird Conservation
Audubon Minnesota
2357 Ventura Drive #106
Woodbury, MN 55125
651/739-9332


-----Original Message-----
From: fredericksonr@willmar.k12.mn.us
[mailto:fredericksonr@willmar.k12.mn.us]
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 11:40 AM
To: mou-net@cbs.umn.edu
Subject: [mou] conservation
Importance: High


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.''
>


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