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Sierra Club Grassroots Email Express

October, 28 2005

Volume 3  No. 17

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This HALLOWEEN, make a call to Maine’s Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and ask them to protect America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Maine’s Coasts from oil drilling!

Halloween events planned for Portland and Bangor:

Over 80 Maine organizations unite to urge Senators Snowe and Collins to protect Maine communities, protect our environment and work for a fair budget deal. You can show support at the rally and press conference.

BACKGROUND:

Congress will soon vote on a budget bill that would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.  Big Oil and its Congressional allies -- in spite of overwhelming public support for protecting this national treasure -- have included Arctic Refuge drilling in the budget.  The House budget also lifts the long-standing moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling and puts Maine’s coasts, including important fisheries like Georges Bank, at serious risk. 

ACTION 1: Call your senators.

Contact Senators Olympia Snowe (800-432-1599) and Susan Collins (202-224-2523) and urge them to vote against any budget bill that opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge OR our sensitive coasts to drilling.  Call Today!

ACTION 2: Attend the Rally & Press Conference!

Please join representatives from the Maine Sierra Club and other Maine organizations working for a fair and clean budget deal.

WHAT:  Halloween Rally for a Fair Budget: The real horror story on Halloween is what the federal budget means for Maine communities and our environment

WHEN:  Monday, October 31, 2005 at 11:00 AM

WHERE: Simultaneous events in PORTLAND and BANGOR

                         PORTLAND:

                         100 State Street

                         (207) 775-1437

                         BANGOR:   

                         Bangor Public Library

                         154 Harlow Street

                         (207) 947-8336

We need YOUR help to save America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Maine’s coasts from oil drilling!

More Information:

Both Congress and the American people know that drilling in the Refuge won't do anything to help lower gas prices.  The Energy Department’s own data show that at best, drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge might bring down gas prices by about a penny, 20 years from now. Moreover, the figures put forward in the reconciliation package are highly speculative at best. Both the House and Senate assume $2.4 billion in revenues from Arctic drilling, a number that is inflated to 80 times the going rate for oil leases in the region.  If they really cared about high prices, they would be looking into why oil companies are raking in record profits in the wake of the recent hurricanes.

$9.9 billion: ExxonMobil quarterly profit 2005 (up 75%)

$6.5 billion: BP quarterly profit 2005 (up 34%)

$3.8 billion: ConocoPhillips quarterly profit 2005 (up 89%)

$2.4 billion: Revenues Congress assumes from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (already inflated to at least 80 times the going rate for oil leases in the region)

They want to give away the Arctic for a FRACTION of what Exxon (and others) made in JUST ONE QUARTER -- and that's with grossly inflated Arctic revenues -- not to mention the pain consumers are feeling at the pump.

At a time when oil companies are making record profits to the tune of billions of dollars, we’re giving them the keys to the Arctic Refuge. They will line our last great wilderness with oil rigs while lining their pockets with profits.

We cannot continue repeat the same mistakes of the past, nor can we drill our way to energy independence. The knee-jerk reaction to put more oil rigs up in hurricane-prone waters and industrialize the Arctic Refuge wouldn’t save consumers money but would rob our children of their natural heritage.

Now we enter a new phase:  there can be no more hiding from the fact that a vote for Reconciliation is a vote to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  We will be working at every step of the way to remind people across the nation and on Capitol Hill of that basic fact.  We aren’t taking anything for granted, and we’ll be talking to every member of Congress until the last votes are counted.  A vote for this reconciliation bill is a vote to drill in the Refuge.  No "ifs" "ands" or "buts" about it.

Maine Chapter Sierra Club

One Pleasant Street

Portland ME 04101

phone: (207) 761-5616

fax: (207) 773-6690

email: maine.chapter@sierraclub.org

web: http://maine.sierraclub.org