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From NRDC website:
The future of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could be determined in the next few days, when the U.S. Senate votes on a budget bill that the Bush administration and the Senate leadership have commandeered as a stealth vehicle for opening the refuge to oil drilling. BioGems Defenders played a key role in the Senate's defeat last April of an Arctic drilling measure, when we shored up the opposition with more than a million messages to Congress. But last month the Bush administration renewed its push to turn this critical wildlife sanctuary into an oil field, padding the budget it submitted to Congress for 2004 with estimated revenues from oil leases in the refuge, even though leasing there is illegal . Senate leaders folded these projections into a bill called the budget resolution, which serves as a blueprint that members of Congress follow as they assign funds for federal agencies and programs.
If the budget resolution passes as written, it will call on Congress to rely on money that won't exist unless it also passes a law giving oil companies access to the refuge. Democratic senators plan to introduce an amendment to remove the Arctic leasing provision from the budget resolution, but it must pass by a full 51-vote majority.
[ 03-14-2003, 03:52 PM: Message edited by: Ziroc ]
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