Oppose Oil Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The Arctic Refuge is one of America's last great wilderness areas. It is home to polar bears, wolves, and grizzly bears that roam freely across the vast plains. A 129,000-member Porcupine caribou herd migrates annually across the refuge from its wintering grounds in Canada to its birthing grounds on the coastal plain. The native Gwich'in people rely on this Porcupine caribou herd as key part of their culture and for sustenance. In addition, the refuge is a stop over point for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds. Finally, great relics from the ice age, musk oxen, still grace this place that U.S. Fish and Wildlife scientists call a complete spectrum of arctic and subarctic ecoystems in our nation, and the only one protected for future generations.

THE TRUTH:

• Refuge oil is scattered in many separate pools--oil companies will need to create miles of pipelines and roads to connect drilling equipment. The government is not including in the roads and all of the pipeline within the estimates of effected areas!
• Drilling in the Refuge won't cut prices at the pump! This oil is a drop of oil in the global bucket.
• Even if Arctic drilling occurs, Americans won't see a drop of Arctic oil for 10 years and then it will only last 6 months.
• A mere two-mile-per-gallon improvement in auto efficiency would save that same amount of oil in under 3 years, and keep on saving.
• Even the most generous estimate of Refuge oil would increase U.S. reserves to only 3.8% percent -- not even close to meeting U.S. demand. WE WILL STILL HAVE TO USE FOREIGN OIL!