House ANWR Vote Alert!

The National Audubon Society has just put out an alert that the House will vote tonight or early tomorrow morning on the energy bill, which includes a provision opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration and drilling. Reps Ed Markey (D-MA) and Nancy Johnson (R-CT) have offered an amendment to the bill that will strip the ANWR provision; a vote on their amendment could come as early as this evening.

Please take a moment to contact your representative via the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and urge them to support the Markey/Johnson amendment to the energy bill. This may be one of the last chances to save ANWR from the oil companies, so we're going to need to make it count!

[Update: The House is now debating the Markey amendment. Congressman Don Young (R-AK) just said on the House floor that those who support the amendment (i.e. vote to keep the oil companies out of ANWR) "are really supporting terrorism." I don't even know how to respond to such an extreme and outrageous statement. -- 5:5o p.m.]

[Further Update: I have just learned that there is another amendment to the House Energy bill that the RINO's readers will be very interested in. My own Congressman, Sherwood Boehlert, a usually-reliable moderate, is the sponsor of an amendment that will increase CAFE (fuel efficiency) standards by a modest amount (25 mpg-33 mpg) over the next few years. This amendment will do infinitely more to decrease America's dependence on foreign oil than will allowing drilling in ANWR, and I urge you all to contact your rep (switchboard number above) and urge them to support the Boehlert amendment as well as the Markey/Johnson amendment. -- 6:21 p.m.]

[More: Votes on these amendments may come around 8 p.m. tonight, say some; other sources say they'll be tomorrow morning. Stay tuned. -- 7:02 p.m.]

[Still More: C-SPAN now indicates that the votes on these amendments will begin at 9 p.m. Will update once the votes are finished. -- 8:32 p.m.]

[Final Update: Sadly I must offer bad news. The Markey Amendment that would have stripped provisions opening ANWR for oil drilling from the energy bill just failed by a vote of 200-231. The Boehlert Amendment that would have raised fuel efficiency standards for American automobiles failed by a vote of 177-254. I'll have more analysis of these two important votes tomorrow once the roll call information is available. -- 10:11 p.m.]