Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-487-0693, mclarty@greens.org
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net
Greens Call New Oil Drilling a Global Warming
Risk, Urge Congressmembers to do Everything Possible to Thwart ANWR and
all New Oil Drilling.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders urged
members of Congress who oppose oil drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to do everything possible to stop enactment of
the recent vote to allow drilling.
Greens also called on Democrats and Republicans in
Congress to oppose all new drilling, and to focus on conversion from
fossil fuel and nuclear energy sources to solar, wind, and other safe
and clean energy. The U.S. is the world's largest energy consumer and
lags far behind other nations on fuel economy and conservation and
implementation of renewable energy.
"Like 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry,
many Democrats who voted against drilling in the ANWR support increased
drilling in other pristine public lands in Alaska and elsewhere in North
America, and favor construction of new pipelines through Canada to the
U.S.," said Maya O'Connor, co-chair of the Green Party of the
United States. "Drilling for oil in the ANWR is only part of the
problem. The real crisis is our addiction to fossil fuels."
Green Party members noted that new drilling not only
threatened local lands and wildlife in Alaska, but also risked
accelerating the advance of catastrophic global climate change.
"At a time when we're facing global warming and
the approach of a peak in oil production, both of which threaten
security and the world economy, it is extremely shortsighted and
dangerous to expand drilling operations," said Greg Gerritt,
secretary of the Green Party of the United States. "The White House
and both Democrats and Republicans in Congress arein the thrall of
corporate energy lobbies, and their deference to corporate profits is
endangering the entire planet."
MORE INFORMATION
The Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1711 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
"Kerry, Bush Defer to Lobbies on Global Warming, Fossil Fuels"
Green Party press release, October 25, 2004
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_10_25_04.html
"Energy Security is a Matter of Fuel Efficiency, Not Arctic
Drilling"
Defenders of Wildlife
http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/arctic/images/energyfacts.pdf
"Running on empty: The leading energy analysts who foretold Enron's
demise have an alarming new claim: The world's major oil companies are
almost tapped out"
By Robert Bryce
Salon.com, March 15, 2005
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/03/15/herold/
2004 Cobb/LaMarche Campaign: News on the recount efforts http://www.votecobb.org