VOLUME 33, NUMBER 3 NOVEMBER 2001

Our October program was presented by Emily Byram, the regional grassroots coordinator for the National Audubon Society's Public Policy Division in Washington DC. Emily spent most of the program time discussing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the threat of proposed oil drilling. ANWR is the nation's northernmost refuge. It is considered to be the finest wilderness santuary for Artic wildlife in the world. It serves as a major breeding ground for over 125 species of birds and numerous Arctic mammals including the large Porcupine herd of caribou.

Although 95% of the North Slope of Alaska is already open for oil drilling, many propose opening ANWR for drilling. In fact, the House of Representatives has already passed legislation to allow oil drilling and President Bush has promised to sign such legislation. Although the proposal calls for only utilizing 2000 acres in an area of several million acres, the 2000 acres would actually be quite scattered and interconnected by roads and pipeline, thus making the area of disruption much larger.

Although pro-drilling proponents suggest that drilling ANWR is needed for our long term energy independence, several facts contradict this. U.S. oil companies already export oil that is extracted from U.S. lands to Asia. Most estimates suggest that ANWR would only produce enough oil to fuel U.S. needs for 6 months, and it would not be available for 10 years.

The events of the past month have made all of us look at issues in a new light - namely national security. The Tennessean ran an article titled "Trans-Alaska Pipeline poses security risk" (October 14th, page 15A). It reviews how a drunk man recently fired a rifle at the pipeline (which traverses 800 miles of remote wilderness) leading to the second largest oil spill (285,600 gallons) in the pipeline's history. Can you imagine what a well planned bomb could do? The oil industry with its extraction, refining, and transportation is very centralized and thus quite vulnerable to attacks. On the other hand, oil conservation by both personal choices and raising the average fuel economy of new vehicles would result in as much oil saved as can be recovered

from ANWR, without any potential for terrorist disruption. Also moving our energy policy away the centralization of the oil industry to alternative energies (solar and wind) that can be more securely produced at a local level would be another step in the right direction.

The National Audubon Society has made the protection of ANWR its top public policy issue. You can go to the website www.protecttheartic.com for further information or contact the Audubon Society at audubonaction@audubon.org. Please stay informed on this important issue and contact our senators (which could vote either way) with your views.

Friends,

It was a pleasure meeting y'all at last week's Audubon Warioto meeting, and sharing the Arctic Refuge issue with you. I still want to work with some of your members in setting up an editorial board visit with the Leaf-Chronicle, and a meeting with Thompson and Frist's district staff in Nashville. Stay tuned.

Thanks again. I'll be in touch soon.

Jeff Barrie

Coordinator - Alaska Coalition of Tennessee

October’s field trip to Hemitite Lake and the Elk and Bison Prairie at Land Between The Lakes was great fun! The group consisted of Joe, Sally, Eric and Ian Schiller, Steve and Debbie Hamilton, and Becky and Jared Houtman. We walked around the entire lake (great exercise!), identified a wonderful variety of trees and plants, then had a picnic dinner. We then went to the Elk and Bison Prairie and saw herd of approximately 20 elk consisting of adult males and females along with a few calves. There were a couple male elk bugling, off by themselves, in an attempt to persuade the females in the herd of another male to join him in their "new and upcoming" herd. We saw no conversions that evening. Good luck to those single bulls. We’ll check on them next year.

So far the efforts of Audubon and other environmental organizations have helped prevent the passage of any legislation by the senate that would authorize drilling in the Arctic Nation Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). This effort was given a boost last week when Sen Daschle the senate majority leader requested that the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee chair, Senator Bingaman, remove the energy bill from the committee schedule until after the first of the year. Sen Dachle did not want a controversial and divisive issue on the agenda at this time while the country is still reacting to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Sen Daschle instructed Senator Bingaman to coordinate development of this energy package by consulting and building consensus with his Senate colleagues. This means it is very important to communicate your opposition to drilling in ANWR to Senators Frist and Thompson. Although Sen Daschle’s action reduced the chances for passage of ANWR drilling legislation this year, pro-drilling senators continue to try to attach amendments to every senate bill that comes up for a vote making it important that we continue to make our voices hear on this issue. We will continue to explore this issue in the coming months. I will present a program in December on the environmental degradation caused by our heavy reliance on fossil fuels, especially the contemporary technique of mining coal known as "Mountain Top Removal."