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WASHINGTON - Calling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge one of America's most pristine and irreplaceable wilderness areas, Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) today led a bipartisan coalition in introducing legislation to protect the refuge from oil exploration by designating it as a federal wilderness area. Lieberman said a National Academy of Sciences study released today highlighted the need for the bill by concluding that future drilling would pose a grave threat to the Arctic's environmental health.
"America's dependence on foreign oil is an urgent and stubborn problem," Lieberman said. "But the answer isn't in the ground. It's in our heads. We have to apply the genius of America to engineer a solution to energy independence, not hope that we will magically find one in the deposits under Alaska."
"Is it worth forever losing a national treasure, one of our last great wild places, for a six month supply of oil ten years from now?" Lieberman continued. "We say no. And we say yes to a smart, forward-looking strategy to wean our economy off its addiction to foreign oil without sacrificing our natural treasures."
The legislation introduced today would designate the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, thereby placing it off-limits from oil development. Joining Lieberman as sponsors of the bill are Sens. Lincoln Chafee (RI), Joseph Biden (DE), Barbara Boxer (CA), Maria Cantwell (WA), Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY), Jon Corzine (NJ), Mark Dayton (MN), Chris Dodd (CT), Richard Durbin (IL), John Edwards (NC), Russ Feingold (WI), Bob Graham (FL), Tom Harkin (IA), Edward Kennedy (MA), John Kerry (MA), Herb Kohl (WI), Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Patrick Leahy (VT), Patty Murray (WA), Jack Reed (RI), Paul Sarbanes (MD), Charles Schumer (NY), and Debbie Stabenow (MI).
Lieberman said the NAS study released today, which was requested by drilling proponents themselves, should clear up any doubts about the harms of drilling in the Arctic Refuge. "The NAS not only found that Arctic oil development has adversely impacted populations of caribou, birds and bowhead whales -- more importantly, the study said that future drilling would pose grave threats to the Arctic's environmental health. Setting aside the refuge as a wilderness area will prevent those threats from becoming real."
Earlier this year, Lieberman outlined principles of a "Declaration of Energy Independence" designed to wean America from its dependence on foreign oil while rejecting the false promise of Arctic drilling. A real energy independence plan, he said, should improve national security, give consumers and companies efficiency incentives, and increase fuel efficiency by at least a million barrels of oil a day by the end of the decade.
Established by President Eisenhower in 1960, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska plays host to a diverse and fragile ecosystem. Proponents of drilling want to open up the most biologically diverse part of the Refuge, the coastal plain, to oil exploration. This area serves as a critical habitat for caribou, muskox, swans, snow geese and numerous other species. It is also home to the 150,000 Porcupine Caribou Herd, the center of culture and the subsistence lifestyle of the Native American Gwich'ins in Northeast Alaska and Canada.
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