A Victory for the Environment, If It Sticks

Moderate Republican House members banded together with an overwhelming majority of Democrats to remove Arctic Refuge drilling language from the Budget Bill. While there's still a chance powerful Senate Republicans with their hand in the oil lobbyist pockets will throw a fit and try to re insert the drilling language, it's a major victory for the environment, and a HUGE defeat for Bush. (For now). -IFK Editor

Letter to Kerry Supporters:

Thanks in no small part to your grassroots leadership -- we've won another skirmish in a decade-long battle over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But the battle is far from over.

During the last week thousands of you called your elected representatives demanding that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge be protected, and your message was heard. Today the House of Representatives stripped the proposal from the budget reconciliation that would have opened up the Refuge and allowed drilling. This vote saved the Refuge from the special interests who would destroy it, at least for now.

This victory is testimony to your hard work and the President's slumping political standing that he can no longer force the Republican Party to grudgingly support a blatant special interest giveaway that vast majorities of Americans oppose. But let's not forget what happened here.

Republican leadership was perfectly willing to use underhanded tactics to sneak destruction of the Refuge in the budget. We should not be surprised if they try again.

I'll be sure to keep you updated in the future on the status of the Refuge here on Capitol Hill. But today, I want to offer my heartfelt congratulations on a great victory and a job well done.

Sincerely,

John Kerry