[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 130 (Friday, October 7, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2048-E2049]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            JIMMY CARTER--A WARNING AGAINST AN ARCTIC FOLLY

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                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 7, 2005

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to your attention and 
strongly endorse the position taken by former president Jimmy Carter in 
support of the preservation of America's greatest wildlife preserve. 
President Carter's position was stated in his opinion editorial article 
``Arctic Folly'', in the Washington Post, September 13, 2005.
  President Carter criticizes a policy advanced by the Bush 
administration and adopted by the Congress in the energy legislation 
passed earlier this session which favors increased production of 
domestic oil over the protection and preservation of the environmental 
treasures contained in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and which do 
nothing to encourage the preservation of oil.
  President Carter states, ``Now is a time to speak out for the 
ecological integrity of this unsurpassed 18-million acres wilderness. 
If we do not respect those acres, many species will be affected.'' This 
``Frozen Desert'' as Mr. Carter describes it, is a rich Serengeti-like 
haven of life; serving as a nursery for Caribous, polar bears, walruses 
and millions of shore birds and waterfowl. Nevertheless, Mr. Carter 
warns that ``. . . In a few months Americans could lose this special 
and amazing place through a backdoor legislative maneuver . . .''
  I strongly support Mr. Carter's commitment to the preservation of the 
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and I am glad to know that he is

[[Page E2049]]

asserting leadership to preserve this important legacy for our wildlife 
and future generations.

               [From the Washington Post, Sept. 13, 2005]

                              Arctic Folly

                           (By Jimmy Carter)

       Congress is about to make one of those big decisions that 
     marks an era. Unless wiser heads prevail, it may do it 
     badly--making the wrong decision in the wrong way and about 
     the wrong place. At stake is America's great wildlife 
     sanctuary, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. To dissaude 
     Congress from this environmental tragedy, Americans must 
     rally, and quickly.
       Congress had its Pyrrhic energy victory this summer, with a 
     new energy policy that ignores much-needed conservation 
     measures and gives the oil industry large new tax breaks 
     regardless of where it drills and pumps. Surely Congress has 
     done more than enough to increase the profits of the oil 
     industry.
       Yet now, in a separate decision, the White House and Big 
     Oil are pressuring Congress to allow drilling rigs to rip 
     into the ecological heart of America's preeminent wildlife 
     sanctuary. We must not confuse this with Prudhoe Bay, which 
     lies west of the Arctic refuge and is already an industrial 
     landscape resembling Houston more than Yellowstone.
       With increasing gasoline prices bringing economic hardship 
     and concern to many Americans, we must not be misled by oil 
     lobbyists who are trying to convince us that our energy 
     security is singularly dependent on sacrificing the Arctic 
     refuge. They promote the false premise that development will 
     touch just a few thousand acres when, in fact, it would 
     introduce roads and pipelines spider-webbing across hundreds 
     of thousands of acres on the fragile coastal plain.
       We cannot drill our way to energy security or lower 
     gasoline prices as long as our nation sits on just 3 percent 
     of world oil reserves yet accounts for 25 percent of all oil 
     consumption. An obvious answer is to increase the fuel 
     efficiency of motor vehicles, at least to the level we set 
     more than a quarter-century ago.
       Instead, the administration recently proposed a tiny 
     increase in gas mileage for SUVs, miniVans and pickups. Not 
     effective until the 2011 models, this would save about one 
     month's current consumption of fuel over the next 20 years--
     far less than will be saved in just one state by a new 
     California law. The new ruling offers automobile makers an 
     opportunity to avoid the reductions by modifying the size of 
     various models as they persist in manufacturing gas guzzlers. 
     It is not a coincidence that Moody's has just downgraded the 
     debt of General Motors and Ford to junk status, while makers 
     of efficient vehicles prosper.
       I have been to the coastal plain of the Arctic National 
     Wildlife Refuge to study the wilderness wildlife. Far from 
     being the frozen ``desert'' some suggest, this is a rich, 
     Serengeti-like haven of life: nursery for caribou, polar 
     bears, walruses and millions of shorebirds and waterfowl that 
     migrate annually to the Lower 48. To sit, as Rosalynn and I 
     did, watching a herd of musk oxen circle-up to defend their 
     young and then to find yourself literally in the midst of 
     thousands of caribou streaming by is to touch in a 
     fundamental way God's glorious ark of teeming wildlife.
       We Americans use a lot-of energy, and millions of us want 
     to do so in a more efficient way that also allows us to 
     cherish our disappearing wilderness heritage. In the Arctic 
     refuge we cannot have it both ways. In the next few months 
     Americans could lose this special and amazing place through a 
     backdoor legislative maneuver.
       Each fall Congress endeavors to combine budgetary 
     directives covering the nation's $2.5 trillion dollar annual 
     budget in a single ``reconciliation'' decision. In a tricky 
     ploy to avoid full debate, drilling advocates have buried 
     their despoil-the-Arctic goal in this mammoth measure. So, 
     conservation-minded Americans must ask our elected 
     representatives to vote down any final budget reconciliation 
     bill that would allow the sacrifice of our Arctic sanctuary.
       Now is the time to speak up for the ecological integrity of 
     this unsurpassed 18-million-acre wilderness. Many Americans 
     will be in Washington on Sept. 20 for the Arctic Refuge 
     Action Day rally on the Mall and to contact congressional 
     representatives personally.
       If we are not wise enough to protect the Arctic refuge, 
     future generations will condemn us for needlessly sacrificing 
     the wilderness of their world to feed our profligate, short-
     term and shortsighted energy habit. The pathway to a better, 
     more sustainable energy future does not wind through the 
     Arctic National Wtldlife Refuge.

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