[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 5, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E5]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               THE UDALL-EISENHOWER ARCTIC WILDERNESS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 5, 2011

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, 50 years ago, on December 6, 1960, President 
Dwight D. Eisenhower set aside the core of the Arctic National Wildlife 
Refuge in Alaska. In so doing, President Eisenhower began the 
bipartisan legacy of protecting this majestic national treasure. 20 
years later, in 1980, Representative Mo Udall succeeded in doubling the 
size of the Refuge.
  Now it is time that we finish the job these great Americans began 50 
years ago. Now it is time to permanently protect the Coastal Plain. The 
Congress needs to pass legislation designating it as wilderness.
  If we don't enact permanent protections for the Refuge, oil companies 
and their allies in Congress will continue to push for short-sighted 
plans to drill one of our last pristine wild places.
  Just last year, the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster led to more than 4 
million barrels of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the 
worst oil spill in the history of the United States. The blobs of oil 
washing up on Gulf beaches recalled the ghosts of Valdez, and of Santa 
Barbara.
  As we learned from the BP oil spill, the oil companies are prepared 
to drill ultra-deep, but they are not prepared to do it ultra-safe. Or 
respond ultra-quick.
  What we did discover is that their response plans for a Gulf oil 
spill included plans to evacuate walruses from the warm waters off 
Louisiana, even though they had not called the Gulf home for 3 million 
years.
  This disaster was born from boosterism from the oil industry. 
Boosterism led to complacency. And complacency led to disaster.
  When it comes to the Arctic Refuge, we've heard the same boosterism 
for years. The oil companies and their allies repeat a list of talking 
points: Drilling has a small footprint. It will not spoil habitats. 
Drilling can be done in an environmentally safe manner.
  Now the oil companies and their allies want to open the Refuge and 
undo 50 years of protections and eons of solitude, all for less than a 
couple pennies at the pump more than two decades from now.
  Instead of looking for the last drops of oil on Earth, we should be 
harnessing the wind and the sun to power our economy and create new, 
safe American jobs.
  And unlike an oil well, you don't need a blowout preventer on a solar 
panel. There's no such thing as a ``tragic wind spill.''
  When we look upon the Refuge decades from now, will we see a monument 
to America's commitment to our natural heritage, or will we see the 
abandoned wells and spilled oil as a monument to our insatiable thirst 
for oil? Will the Refuge remain a monument to America's wisdom or will 
our children and grandchildren only be able to see polar bears, caribou 
and other iconic animals carved in stone, monuments to our lack of 
foresight and innovation?
  Now is the time to create a refuge for the American people from 
hundreds of billions of dollars we spend every year on foreign oil. Now 
is the time to create a refuge from the fossil fuel policies that have 
devastated the economy of the Gulf. Now is the time to protect the 
Arctic Refuge.

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