I. Action
II. Background
III. For more information

I. ACTION

Urgent! TODAY! Tell Your Senators to Oppose the Addition of an Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Provision to the Defense Bill!

Call your Senators IMMEDIATELY! The Capitol Switchboard is (202) 224-3121.

II. BACKGROUND

Save the Arctic Refuge! Support the Gwich'in Nation!

The fight to save the Arctic isn't over yet. The Senate is expected to
vote TODAY! - Wednesday on the Defense Bill. We can still win the battle
to save America's greatest wildlife sanctuary.

Urgent! TODAY! Tell Your Senators to Oppose the Addition of an Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Provision to the Defense Bill!

Last-Minute Provision Would Open the Arctic Refuge to Drilling

This past Sunday, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) succeeded in getting the GOP
to add a last minute provision to the Defense Appropriations Bill that
would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling. They
attached a provision allowing oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge to an
unrelated bill to fund the military and hurricane recovery efforts in the
Gulf of Mexico. On Monday morning the House passed this version of the
bill, 308-106, and the bill is now moving to the Senate.

Arizona Senator John McCain, a decorated war hero, has called this move
"disgusting."

Most people in DC are saying this Senate vote will take place TODAY!

There will probably be two types of votes: Procedural votes (on whether
the Arctic provision violates Senate rules -- 51 needed) and a vote on
Cloture (ending debate -- 60 needed). Both types of votes are extremely
important and more likely would happen today - Wednesday!

Call your Senators IMMEDIATELY! The Capitol Switchboard is (202) 224-3121.

Just tell the operator what State you're from.  You will need to call
twice to reach both senators.  Here's a sample message you can leave:

"Hello, my name is _____ and I live in _______.  I urge you to protect the
Arctic Refuge by voting to block the Defense Department Appropriations
bill until the provision allowing drilling in the Arctic is removed.  How
do you plan to vote?"

URGE your Senator do everything in their power to remove Arctic drilling
provisions from the Defense Authorization Bill so it can be passed! Tell
them to vote against Cloture and vote in support of any procedural motion
that would send the bill back to conference to remove the ANWR language.

Talking Points for Calling Your Senators

- It is outrageous that Arctic Refuge drilling has been slipped into the
Defense Authorization Bill. The issue of oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge
is too important to the American public and future generations to be snuck
through in an attempt to circumvent the established process. It should be
fully debated and brought to a vote on its own merits.

- Drilling ANWR is not the solution to our energy problems. Drilling in
the Arctic Refuge would spoil this last great wilderness for an extremely
insignificant amount of oil which would have little effect on high gas
prices. It will also take 20 years for this oil to even enter the market.

- Threatening to hold the Defense spending bill hostage in order to force
controversial Arctic National Wildlife drilling legislation through
Congress is an indefensible, unvarnished abuse of power.  It is utterly
unconscionable that any single member of the Senate would put funding for
our national defense and hurricane relief in jeopardy to push a personal
agenda that has failed again and again in Congress.

- Drilling proponents have always been willing to do or say anything in
pursuit of his agenda, but this takes it to a new low.  Senator Stevens
said today "The levees will be paid for when we drill in Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge."  This is a desperate and despicable move that smacks of
blackmail, and we fully expect leaders of both parties will put a stop to
it.

- This fact that he has stooped to this desperate gambit also spotlights
just how difficult it will be for Senator Stevens to cobble together 60
votes to pass his ill-conceived scheme.

- No one should be fooled: Senator Stevens himself has conceded that
defeating his drilling rider would not really jeopardize funding for our
troops.  A vote against this bill is a vote for integrity and honesty in
the Senate.  We are confident that responsible Republican and Democrat
leaders will reject this politically-motivated scheme to hijack important
national policy priorities for the sake of a narrow, special-interest
agenda that has otherwise failed to pass muster in this Congress.

- In the past, Senator Stevens has repeatedly tried similar schemes,
linking drilling revenues to pensions for steelworkers and health benefits
for coal miners, for example, and his is not the first time he has tried
to use heating assistance for the poor (LIHEAP) as a "sweetener."  The
unifying theme is a willingness to take advantage of the most vulnerable
Americans in pursuit of further riches for oil companies.

- The details of this amendment starkly illustrate the unabashed cynicism
of Senator Stevens' maneuverings. Connecting Arctic drilling revenues to
aid for Katrina survivors is a bald-faced attempt to buy votes for
something that would never make it through the Senate on its own merits.
For that reason alone, it deserves to be stopped in its tracks, now.

- In good times and bad, in war and in peace, we have always protected the
unspoiled places that make this country the envy of the world. It would be
a national disgrace to forever spoil a national treasure like the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge, especially in the context of legislation that is
supposed to support our men and women in uniform.

- Although we support the Private Fuel Storage (PFS) provision in the bill
that would protect nearly 100,000 acres of public land as wilderness, and
interfere with the dangerous and unnecessary consortium of nuclear power
utility companies' (PFS) proposal to build an "interim" radioactive waste
dump on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation in Utah, we absolutely
oppose the opening of ANWR to drilling!

Americans and sovereign Indian Nations must stand together to protect the
Arctic Wildlife Refuge.  The future of the Gwich'in Nation and the
concerned Inupiat from Katovik Village depends on your support.


III. FOR MORE INFORMATION

Gwich'in Steering Committee
www.gwichinsteeringcommittee.org

Indigenous Environmental Network
www.ienearth.org