Wednesday, April 20, 2005

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.]

3 Comments:

At 10:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Comments on the "courageous" stand of Voinivich are coming in. One that rang true to me: "He is a Purple State governor, whose district is in the democratic-leaning Northeastern part of the state. That he is opposed to Bolton is NOT selling out to the "other" side, but is being sensitive to his constituents." If this comment is true, courage would be supporting his party's nominee in these circumstances or declaring as an Independent.

 
At 10:42 PM, Blogger JBD said...

One issue with the comment you quote: Voinovich is a Senator. That means he represents the entire state of Ohio, not just a specific district or area of the state. Ohio, you'll recall, voted for President Bush in November.

 
At 11:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, I think I have it. It's like... Bush is the President. That means he represents the entire nation, not just the Republicans. He accepted the votes of loyal Republicans who didn't necessarily like him or his proposed policies, so now he is perfectly free to...
Hmmm, I guess it only works for Senators. And Ohio is hardly Bush Country. So I guess I don't get it. Sorry. Voinovich playing to his base still resonates with me. But I can see that I am much more cynical than you. I wish that you were right.

 

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