John Kerry on Senate Vote to Allow Drilling in Arctic Refuge!!!

Dear -

The audacity of these guys never ceases to amaze me.

Once again, we have to take emergency action to try and stop the Bush Administration from opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Once again, I need you to stand with me. The vote that decides the future for the Arctic Refuge is TONIGHT.

Tell the Senate to Protect the Arctic Refuge : vote NO on the budget tonight.

Last time the Republicans tried to attach drilling provisions to the defense spending bill. This time they are trying to open the Arctic Refuge to drilling by using the budget process. They want this so badly that they will do anything it takes to win. So they use loopholes and backroom tactics to try and force their drilling plan through.

If we pass the budget tonight, we also allow for drilling in the Arctic Refuge. A vote for the budget is a vote for drilling.

Therefore, I ask you to help me convince my colleagues: vote NO on the budget tonight. Vote NO until the provision allowing drilling is removed.

This single issue highlights how bad this administration is on the environment, how they have no plan for real energy independence, how they put short term gain over long term growth, and how they will do anything to win.

Just like on the Roadless Area Conservation Act, which 58,000 of you have now co-sponsored, I need you to make your voice heard. The Senators still sitting on the fence for this critical vote are indeed listening.

Tell the Senate: vote NO on the budget until the provision allowing drilling is removed.

A victory today will be hard-fought - they are lining up impressive roadblocks in a last ditch effort to get this through. But we will certainly lose if we don't even try. So please join me now.

Thank you, once again, for your support.

Sincerely,

Maria Cantwell

The Tipsheet for March 16, 2006

GOP Senators woo Landrieu on budget bill

Republican leaders huddled with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) late this afternoon in an attempt to win her vote for their fiscal 2007 budget.

Apparently short of even the 50 votes it would take to force a tie that could be broken by Vice President Cheney, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) met with Landrieu in Frist’s Capitol office as the Senate voted on a long series of amendments.

Putting an index finger across her mouth as she emerged from Frist’s office to vote on an amendment, Landrieu said: “My lips are sealed.” Her colleagues were equally reticent when asked about the negotiations.

Landrieu’s chief legislative priority since last August has been securing assistance for her hurricane-ravaged state. Louisiana’s junior senator, Republican David Vitter, was also involved in the discussions.

As Republican leaders concentrated on securing final passage, the Senate added billions in spending to a budget that Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) had termed “vanilla.”

Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) added $7 billion to an advance appropriations account in an effort to boost spending on education, health care and other domestic programs. The Appropriations Committee is under no obligation to use the money for those purposes, but Specter noted that few subcommittees, his Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education among them, have the authority to use advance appropriations.

“It's not sort of a gimmick,” Specter told reporters when asked about his maneuver. “It is a gimmick.”

Specter was still seeking assurances from Senate leaders that the money would end up in his hands, and he said he had yet to commit to voting for the budget.

Senators approved another pair of amendments that raised the discretionary spending cap from $873 billion to $877 billion.

Earlier in the day, the chamber cleared a $781 billion increase in the nation’s debt limit, moving the ceiling to about $9 trillion. Three Republicans – Sens. Conrad Burns (Mont.), Tom Coburn (Okla.) and John Ensign (Nev.) -- joined all of the Democrats and Independent Jim Jeffords (Vt.) in voting against the debt-limit increase.

Burns is considered potentially vulnerable in his re-election bid. Republican leaders won a significant victory by keeping the measure free of amendments, any of which would have sent the measure to the House for a politically risky vote that House leaders hoped to avoid.

Supporters ensured the final margin by adding up to $10 billion over five years in new coastal restoration money for states with oil and gas drilling offshore, thereby picking up the measure's lone Democratic vote, Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

"We put a little more grease in the pan, and there it was," Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said.

Drilling opponent Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said he was disappointed and predicted the measure would go through the same "buzz saw" that killed it last year.

Senate panel to OK ANWR drilling bill by mid-May
Fri Mar 17, 2006 01:04 PM ET

By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will approve legislation by mid-May to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, according to the panel's chairman.

Snip...

The House of Representatives has yet to vote on its budget legislation. But two dozen Republican House lawmakers have said they oppose putting ANWR drilling language in the budget bill.
"This fight is a long way from over," said William Meadows, president of The Wilderness Society.

Drilling supporters hope consumer anger over high gasoline prices and rising oil imports this election year will encourage more lawmakers to vote for drilling in the refuge.

ANWR stretches across 19 million acres (7.7 million hectares) in the northeast corner of Alaska. The White House wants to offer 1.5 million acres in the refuge's coastal plain for energy exploration leases.

more...

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=11571926&src=rss/domesticNews