24 Reasons to Really Support ANWR
Yesterday, the House GOP leaders stated they would not include a provision to allow responsible oil exploration in the House Budget Reconciliation Bill soon to be debated in the House. A group of 24 self-described moderate Republicans, led by Rep. Charles Bass of New Hampshire, signed a letter stating they would not support the Budget Bill with an ANWR provision in it. Most of those Republicans are from the northeastern states. These moderates have gone against the House leadership and wishes of the Chairman of the House Resources Committee Richard Pombo (R-CA) who all support the ANWR provision. Also left out of the House bill was a provision to support Outer Continental Shelf gas exploration.
The ANWR provision was passed last week in the Senate which has traditionally been the stumbling block for ANWR. The Senate ANWR provision prevailed 51-48 votes. It is considered by Senate leadership as a major provision in the bill. The Senate Budget Reconciliation Bill will be merged with the House version of the bill in Conference Committee and it is expected ANWR will be retained in the final bill.
The Senate Resources Chairman Pete Dominici (R-NM) as well as Alaska Senators Stevens and Murkowski were adamant that the ANWR provision must in the final bill.
The House is likely to vote on the Budget Reconciliation Bill this afternoon and the compromise language will come out of the joint Conference Committee probably sometime in December.
These “moderate republicans” spent much of Wednesday threatening their leadership over the ANWR provision. All signed a letter copied below stating their opposition to ANWR.
Looking at the home states of this breakaway group one sees a very typical pattern. Of the 14 states represented only 4 produce any oil or gas and the total production from those four states (NY, IL, PA, MI) is less than ½ of 1% of the total US national production. This is counter to their petroleum consumption which totals over 236 million gallons of petroleum a day.
As noted above it is interesting to note that the “moderate- republicans” mostly hail from Northeastern states. Heating oil is the number one resource used to heat homes in the Northeast. Hypocritically offshore eco-friendly wind farms projects have also famously been sued by NIMBYies in court in NE States leaving energy options slim with scant efficient use of solar and great opposition to nuclear and coal power.
The irony comes in Northeastern Congressmen’s demands for billions of dollars of fuel oil subsidies to be handed out to survive their cold winters. As Tara Sweeney of Alaska’s Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) said at a recent press conference, “It’s 30 below zero in Kaktovik (ANWR’s only community) today and these ‘moderates’ - who are preventing my Inupiat Eskimos from using oil and gas on their own private lands in ANWR - are pleading for heating oil subsidies for their constituents in New England. Such actions are appalling and offensive to my people”.
The other states concerned, for example Minnesota - Rep. Ramstad and Kennedy -produces no oil or gas and yet heats 68% of its homes with natural gas. It consumes over 14.3 million gallons of petroleum a day as well as relying on imports to feed its two refineries.
Similarly Rep. Sensenbrenner’s state of Wisconsin produces no oil or gas and yet consumes 14.4 million gallons of petroleum a day and relies on natural gas for 66% of its home heating fuel.
Rep Dave Reichert’s home state of Washington is a direct beneficiary of Alaskan Arctic Oil with nearly half of all Alaskan oil being refined in Washington and over $3,761,850,000 worth of investment having been made in Washington directly from oil development in the Arctic over the past 30 years.
THEY NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!
The Group of 24 moderate Republicans include:
Jeb Bradley (NH-1st Dist.) Tel: 202-225-5456 Fax: 202-225-5822 (Chief of Staff Debra Vanderbeek)
http://www.house.gov/bradley/contact.html#email
Sherwood Boehlert (NY-24th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-3665 Fax: 202-225-1891
Web site: http://www.house.gov/boehlert/ Energy LA –Amy Chiang amy.chiang@mail.house.gov
Nancy Johnson (CT-5th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-4476 Fax: 202-225-4488
Environment LA – Stephanie Ashwell - stephanie.ashwell@mail.house.gov
Christopher Smith (NJ) Tel: 202-225-3765 Fax: 202-225-7768
Energy LA – Kristie Rodgers – kristie.rodgers@mail.house.gov
James Sensenbrenner (WI-5th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-5101 Fax:202-225-3190 Energy LA – Michael Lenn – Michael.lenn@mail.house.gov
Timothy Johnson (IL-15th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-2371 Fax: 202-226-0791
rep.johnson@mail.house.gov
James Leach (IA-2nd Dist.) Tel: 202-225-6576 Fax: 202-226-1278, Energy LA – Naomi Zeff – naomi.zeff@mail.house.gov
Wayne Gilchrest (MD) Tel: 202-225-5311 Fax: 202-225-0254, Energy LA – Edith Thompson – edith.thompson@mail.house.gov
Sue Kelly (NY-19th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-5441 Fax: 202-225-3289, Environment LA – Jody Milanese – jody.milanese@mail.house.gov
Charles Bass (NH) Tel: 202-225-5206 Fax:202-225-2946, Energy LA – Tad Furtado – tad.furtado@mail.house.gov
Bob Inglis (SC-4th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-6030 Fax: 202-226-1177, Energy LA – Garth Van Meter – garth.vanmeter@mail.house.gov
David Reichert (WA-8th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-7761 Fax: 202-225-4282,
http://www.house.gov/reichert/IMA/issue_subscribe.htm
Mark Kennedy (MN-6th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-2331 Fax: 202-225-6475 Energy LA – Michael Yost – michael.yost@mail.house.gov
Christopher Shays (CT-4th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-5541 Fax: 202-225-9629 Energy LA – Dave Natonski – dave.natonski@mail.house.gov
Michael Ferguson (NJ-7th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-5361 Fax: 202-225-9460 Energy LA – Tom Fussaro – tom.fussaro@mail.house.gov
Jim Saxton (NJ-3rd Dist.) Tel: 202-225-4765 Fax: 202-225-0778 Environment LA – Andy Oliver – andy.oliver@mail.house.gov
Michael Fitzpatrick (PA-8th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-4276 Fax: 202-225-9511 Chief of Staff Michael Conallen – michael.conallen@mail.house.gov
Rosco Bartlett (MD-6th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-2721 Fax: 202-225-2193, Energy LA – Mark Aitken – mark.aitken@mail.house.gov
Mark Kirk (IL-10th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-4835 Fax: 202-225-0837 LD- Jeannette Windon – jeannette.windon@mail.house.gov
Michael Castle (DE-at large) Tel: 202-225-4165 Fax: 202-225-2291 Energy LA- Jim Catella – jim.catella@mail.house.gov
John Schwarz (MI-7th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-6276 Fax: 202-225-6281, Environment LA – Jared Page – jared.page@mail.house.gov
Jim Gerlach (PA-6th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-4315 Fax: 202-225-8440, Energy LA – Bill Tighe – bill.tighe@mail.house.gov
Tom Davis (VA-11th Dist.) Tel: 202-225-1492 Fax: 202-225-3071 , Energy LA – Bill Womack – bill.womack@mail.house.gov
Jim Ramstad (MN-3rd Dist.) Tel: 202-225-2871 Fax: 202-225-6351, Energy LA – Adam Peterman – adam.peterman@mail.house.gov
It is greatly encouraged that all American’s who care about a sensible national energy policy contact those listed above and let their feelings be known!
Don’t let these “moderates” bring down the National Budget and our National Energy Future!
Click here to view the letter against responsible ANWR development signed by the 24 republicans.