Johnson Joins Markey and Dems to Introduce Bill to Protect ANWR
By Bill Yelenak
WASHINGTON – Rep. Nancy Johnson (CT-5) joined several Democratic congressmen Thursday in a bipartisan effort to introduce legislation that would prevent drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Johnson, the only Republican present at Thursday’s press conference, said the Morris K. Udall Arctic Wilderness Act would help prevent the destruction of “one of the most breathtaking wildlife sanctuaries in the entire world.” She not only denounced drilling in the refuge, but also said the prospect of probing the landscape for oil was just as dangerous to the area’s wildlife.
“Just mapping and moving the huge equipment required to do this would damage the ground,” Johnson said. “But after the mapping, the destruction that would result from the construction of oil-drilling capabilities would be catastrophic.”
Johnson said while her opponents raise the issue of drilling in ANWR every year, this would be the year that the argument finally stopped.
“Each year they develop new ways to try to open the refuge to destructive drilling and each year we have managed to stop them and each year more decisively,” Johnson said. “This year, we are out to engage the real debate, which is to pass this legislation we are introducing to permanently protect the refuge.”
The bill, drafted by Rep. Ed Markey (MA-7), is very similar to a bill of the same name that Markey introduced in 2001. Although the bill had 153 co-sponsors, it never came to a vote.
Markey lauded Johnson and said the only way the bill would pass was with strong support from both parties.
“This whole effort is bipartisan,” Markey said. “It always has been, going back to Theodore Roosevelt, and it is again today because it is the only way with which we can win.”
Johnson said the decision to drill was not necessarily entirely about producing more domestic oil, something most Republicans have been adamant about.
“The issue of drilling in the refuge is not about oil – it’s about our values,” Johnson said. “It’s about our ability to balance the values we place on critical environmental resources and unique ecosystems … and the values we place on a small supply of oil.”
Johnson said drilling supporters who argue that drilling must be done immediately in ANWR and that there are no alternatives were incorrect. She cited alternatives to drilling in ANWR, such as more careful consumption of gasoline, which would reduce the need for oil.
Johnson said her opponents were not seeing and accepting the alternatives to drilling, such as increasing the use of fuel-cell technology and raising fuel-efficiency standards for sport utility vehicles–especially because the coastal plain of ANWR could produce only a “180-day supply of oil.”
The proposed legislation, named after former congressman Morris K. Udall of Arizona in honor of his fight to save the refuge, would permanently protect nearly 1.6 million acres of ANWR’s coastal plain from drilling or other development, according to Johnson.
Bill Yelenak, a Boston University student, works at the Boston University Washington News Service in Washington, D.C. His telephone number is 202-756-2860 ext: 114 and his email is byelenak@newbritainherald.com.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
