WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- Senators, environmentalists, religious leaders, labor advocates, and Native Indians gathered in a scenic park near the U.S. Capitol Wednesday to protest the Bush administration's efforts to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and pressure the Senate to block those efforts.
The rally drew a crowd of about 500, some from as far away as the Yukon, to prevent the Senate from passing legislation being debated this week that would permit drilling in the 19 million acres that is home to caribou and polar bears and considered one of the last great swaths of wilderness in the world.
"Make no mistake about it," Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., a former vice presidential candidate, told a cheering audience. "This was a test run by the Bush administration ... to see if they could break the back and the will of the environmental movement."
Lieberman was joined by fellow Democrat Sens. Deborah Stabenow of Michigan, Paul Wellstone of Minnesota and Ron Wyden of Oregon. The crowd was filled with demonstrators carrying signs reading, "Don't Plunda the Tundra" and "Caribou and Oil Don't Mix." Many protesters carried stuffed eagles, bears, and wolves toy animals with fact sheets attached to them that were handed out by environmentalists groups. Many were dressed in costume, some dressed in oil barrel costumes, some wearing moose hats, and even one person dressed as a polar bear holding the American flag.
"I promise you," Lieberman said, "with all your steadfast support, the U.S. Senate will say 'no.'"
The power in the Senate lies in a delicate balance, however, with 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one independent.
Lieberman said drilling in the Arctic refuge, located along Alaska's North Slope, would decrease America's dependency on foreign oil only from 62 percent to 60 percent.
"Even if we started drilling tomorrow," Sen. Stabenow told the audience, "the first barrel of oil wouldn't make it until ten years."
Opponents of Arctic refuge drilling have some bipartisan support. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said in a statement released at the rally that drilling would do nothing to help the nation's energy consumption.
"The fastest, cheapest, and cleanest step we could take toward reducing our nation's (dependency) on foreign oil would be to improve the fuel efficiency of America's auto fleet, particularly our gas guzzlers, SUVs and minivans," Snowe said.
Ray Rogers, founder of Labor-Environment Alliance for Planetary Solidarity, called the Bush administration claim that Arctic drilling would provide jobs 'shortsighted.' Bush, Rogers told the crowd, is one of the most "anti-worker, anti-environment presidents this nation has ever seen. Shame on you, President Bush. Shame on you, Jimmy Hoffa."
The Bush administration has also said drilling in the Arctic would contribute to national security. Given the crisis in the Middle East, it is becoming increasingly important for Americans to search for other oil resources to ease dependency on foreign oil, he said.
"The country needs oil," Michael Shanahan, spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, told United Press International. "You improve national security, domestic security, if you increase the amount of oil that helps drive the American economy." Almost two-thirds of the U.S. oil supply comes from abroad, he said.
Although the amount from the Arctic might just be a drop in the bucket, Shanahan noted, every bit counts. "Any amount of oil that can be put in the marketplace improves the situation."
Shanahan added, "The industry thinks it would be possible to tap oil reserves and safely without environmental harm."
Sandra Newman, councilor for the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation Indians in Old Crow, Yukon, disagreed, saying any oil drilling directly threatens the Gwitchin Indians' way of life.
"America must be responsible for the energy it uses," Newman said. She asked if Las Vegas and Reno could occasionally turn off its lights to reduce its electricity consumption.
Newman had other conservation ideas as well.
"Do you really need the Indy 500?"
