AMERICA’S ARCTIC REFUGE— On December 21, the Senate again voted against opening the Refuge to oil and gas drilling. Areas like the Brooks Range mountains, shown here, will remain preserved.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (Wash.), with help from Sens. Harry Reid (Nev.),Dick Durbin (Ill.), John Kerry (Mass.), Joe Lieberman (Conn.), Diane Feinstein (Calif.), Lincoln Chafee (R.I.), Mike DeWine (Ohio) and Russ Feingold (Wis.) led a successful filibuster against drilling, and the Senate was forced to drop the measure.

U.S. PIRG celebrated the move as another key victory in our 15-year campaign to protect America’s Arctic.

Sen. Stevens chose to use the defense bill as his pro-drilling vehicle after a historic victory against drilling in the House. On Nov. 9, in the face of opposition from moderate Republicans and a unified Democratic caucus, the House dropped drilling language from its budget bill.

The wins in the House and Senate came after months of grassroots campaign work by PIRG field organizers
across the country and advocates in Washington, D.C. In the House, PIRG staff worked with Reps. Nancy Johnson (RConn.) and Sherwood Boehlert (RN.Y.) to rally Republican moderates.

The deciding factor came when 26 moderate Republicans signed a letter, written by Rep. Charlie Bass (N.H.), urging the budget committee to drop the language from the bill.

In addition to Reps. Johnson, Boehlert and Bass, the Arctic drilling language met with especially strong opposition from Republican Jeb Bradley (N.H.), Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) who, working closely with Arctic champion Rep. Ed Markey (Mass.), kept the Democrats united against the budget bill offered by the House leadership.

Sens. Reid and Durbin did the same in the Senate to help secure enough votes to win the filibuster.

Rep. David Reichert’s (R-Wash.) decision to oppose including Arctic Refuge drilling in the budget highlights the grassroots work of PIRG organizers.

At a press conference with other moderates, Rep. Reichert said that his office received more than 1,600 phone calls on the Arctic, and 95 percent of those calls asked him to vote against the budget if it included drilling language.

“That press conference put pro-drilling members of the Senate on notice that their budget bill, which included Arctic drilling, would be dead on arrival in conference,” said U.S. PIRG Preservation Director Athan Manuel.

Public support has been instrumental in past decisions to protect the Arctic Refuge. To date, hundreds of thousands of Americans have contacted their members of Congress or otherwise taken action to protect this last pristine section of Alaska’s northern slope.

“This is a huge win for America’s Arctic and the American people, who once again overwhelmingly— and successfully—opposed this backdoor attempt to drill in the Arctic,” said Manuel.