Urgent: Tell Congress We Can't Use Arctic Drilling To Close Budget Gaps

Urgent: The House leadership is moving quickly to push a plan that would use questionable revenue from oil and gas drilling in the Arctic --home to caribou, wolverines, more than 200 bird species, and America's struggling polar bears -- to close a funding gap in the Transportation Bill.

The plan is highly speculative, environmentally destructive and fiscally irresponsible, using revenue that may not even materialize in five years to fund very real transportation projects today. And it puts some of America's most pristine wilderness and waters at needless risk.

Join Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund today as they work to stop this dangerous plan! Urge your representative to oppose using Arctic oil and gas drilling revenues to fund the Transportation Bill.
Dear [Representative],

As a constituent and supporter of Defender of Wildlife Action Fund, I am writing today to urge you to oppose a fiscally irresponsible plan to fund the Transportation Bill with highly speculative revenue from opening America's Arctic to drilling.

[Your comment will be added here]

The House leadership is pushing for a plan to use oil and gas drilling revenues from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore drilling in Arctic waters to close the funding gap for the reauthorization of the Transportation Bill.

This is a terrible idea that relies on highly speculative future revenues to fund very real transportation projects today.

Even the most generous revenue estimates from drilling will not be enough to fund proposed transportation projects in the bill, especially since any revenue from drilling in the Arctic Refuge will be reduced by as much as 90% through state-revenue sharing agreements already in place. In addition, any real revenue generation will likely not start for at least five years as oil companies will still need to explore, apply for drilling permits and start development. That's too late for today's transportation needs.

Relying on speculative revenue that may or may not materialize for years is no way to fund the bricks and mortar projects of next year.

Even the Competitive Enterprise Institute goes as far as to label this irresponsible plan "myopic political gimmickry."

America's Arctic is a place of pristine wilderness and waters and is home to some of our most iconic species, including polar bears, bowhead whales, arctic foxes, walruses. It is also the nesting ground of hundreds of thousands of migratory birds.

Any proposal to include revenue from oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or in arctic waters in the transportation bill is bad fiscal policy and bad public policy. It will provide too little too late for the transportation bill and it threatens majestic wildlife and America's pristine arctic.

I hope that you will work with your colleagues to oppose any efforts to rely on questionable revenue from destructive drilling in the Arctic that will not close the funding gap in the Transportation Bill.

I look forward to hearing from you on this important matter.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]
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