BACKCOUNTRY ALERT - URGENT ACTION REQUIRED

Republicans reject Baucus' efforts to halt Front drilling

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/new...ws/662710.html


Your action is needed TODAY, as this vote goes TOMORROW:



Action needed TODAY

The U.S. Senate is about to vote on a national energy plan that will
undermine the health of our public lands and National Parks! Please
Take Action!

This bill would cut the public out of the process of how their land is
used, turn over land management to an agency with a single-minded zeal
for production over all other values, and rip off the taxpayer.

Contact your Senators and tell them to vote NO on this bill when it
comes to the Senate floor on Wednesday morning, November 19th.


To Contact your Senators by phone dial 202-225-3121 and ask for the
office of either of your Senators. Tell the staff person who answers
that you live in that state and that you expect him to vote NO! on the
energy bill. After leaving your message for that Senator, ask to be
transferred to the other Senator for your state and leave the same
message.
You may also contact your Senators via e-mail by clicking he

http://www.senate.gov

and picking your state in "Find Your Senators: Choose a State".

More Information about the Energy Bill

The proposed energy bill destroys any semblance of balance between
protecting wildlife on public lands and energy development. It weakens
drinking water protections, makes the taxpayers pay polluters for
considering environmental impacts and puts the Department of Energy in
charge of your public lands. The bill includes:


Once a complete application is received, the bill allows the BLM only
ten days to make decisions on drilling permits. (Sec. 348). The BLM is
already overwhelmed and this provision will lead to rushed decisions,
made without adequate analysis.

The Interior Secretary via "Secretarial Order" can designate utility
and pipeline corridors across public lands without seeking public
input through a land use planning process (Sec. 350).

Puts the Energy Department in charge of implementing Executive Order
13211, which mandates that federal land management agencies not make
take any action without considering its impacts on possible energy
development. (Section 346) These are determinations that belong with
the agencies managing the land, not the DOE. This further tilts the
playing field to making energy development the paramount use of public
lands.

Allows oil and gas lessees to be compensated from royalties for their
costs of complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (Sec.
326). This is a dangerous precedent and unfair to taxpayers who are
already permitting these companies to profit from their public lands.

Waives existing National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental
review and public participation process for all types of energy
development projects on Indian lands in favor of an unspecified new
process. Title V.

Prohibit drilling fluids from being considered pollutants of drinking
water under the Safe Drinking Water Act (Sec. 327)














http://www.greatfallstribune.com/new...ws/662710.html





By FAITH BREMNER
Tribune Washington Bureau

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WASHINGTON -- Republicans late Monday rebuffed an attempt by Sen. Max
Baucus, D-Mont., to keep gas drillers out of a small area of Montana's
Rocky Mountain Front while the Interior Department studies options for
buying them out.

The Front's 200-square-mile Badger-Two Medicine area is considered
sacred by the Blackfeet Tribe, and drilling there would be
controversial, Baucus told a House-Senate committee that negotiated a
final energy bill.

Baucus offered an amendment that would have put a three-year
moratorium on drilling there while the Interior Department explores
options for buying or trading out leases in the area bounded by
Glacier National Park, the Blackfeet reservation and the Great Bear
Wilderness Area.

"No leaseholder worth his salt will pursue these," Baucus said shortly
before the committee rejected his amendment 7-6 along party lines. "It
will not happen."

The panel subsequently approved the final energy bill, which now goes
to the full House and Senate for one last vote. The U.S. Forest
Service has prohibited any drilling in the area until it completes a
cultural and historical study of the area.

Although he did not sit on the negotiating committee, Sen. Conrad
Burns, R-Mont., carried great weight with the committee's Republican
members. Burns made it known that he does not support the moratorium,
and committee Chairman Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said he made a
commitment to Burns and others not to support it.

After the vote, Burns' camp made no apologies for his opposition.

"Everybody can come up with a reason that their own little area should
not be (drilled)," Burns spokesman J.P. Donovan said.

"Practically any place you drill today, somebody is going to say it's
too something: too dry, too wet, too pretty," Montana Petroleum
Association Executive Director Gail Abercrombie said. "This is a
high-potential area that's on trend with areas in Canada and Wyoming
that are very prolific."

Conservation groups are happy that Baucus last month talked the
committee into including a provision that would allow the Interior
Department to explore options for buying out leases in both the
Badger-Two Medicine and the Blackleaf areas. However, without a
moratorium, leaseholders could in the meantime move toward
development, harm wildlife and permanently scar the area, they said.

Montana's Rocky Mountain Front still has most of its native species
and is home to the country's largest bighorn sheep herd and
second-largest elk herd, according to the Montana Wilderness Society.
It also supports a large number of grizzly bears.

"With over 80 percent of the land open to drilling in the Northern
Rockies, it seems crazy to go after every last acre when some places
clearly deserve to be protected," said Chris Mehl, a spokesman for the
Wilderness Society's Northern Rockies office.

"We're deeply troubled that the rest of Montana's congressional
delegation doesn't recognize the value of conserving or preserving one
of the most wildlife diverse regions of Montana," said Craig Sharpe,
executive director of the Montana Wildlife Federation.

Faith Bremner is a reporter for Gannett News Service

"it's no joke,Tuco.It's a rope" wrote in
message om...
Republicans reject Baucus' efforts to halt Front drilling


http://www.greatfallstribune.com/new...ws/662710.html


Your action is needed TODAY, as this vote goes TOMORROW:




snipola

Strange that Baucus is suddenly an enviromentalist... he wasn't so much of
one under the Clinton Administration.

scorecards:

106th congress 33, lifetime 50.

http://www.americanlands.org/CAMPAIG..._scorecard.htm

'course he is still ahead of Burns with the good folks at the League of
Conservation Voters.

0 to 60

http://www.lcv.org/images/client/pdfs/scorecard98.pdf

"++ Strange that Baucus is suddenly an enviromentalist... he wasn't
so much of
one under the Clinton Administration.++

Most of Montana is for protecting the Front. Baucus listens to his
constituents, Burns only listens to industry.

"it's no joke,Tuco.It's a rope" wrote in
message om...
"++ Strange that Baucus is suddenly an enviromentalist... he wasn't
so much of
one under the Clinton Administration.++

Most of Montana is for protecting the Front. Baucus listens to his
constituents, Burns only listens to industry.

And nobody listens to Mikey, which, given that he has nothing to say (well
really, if he DID, one would expect him to say something in his own words
now, wouldn't one?), is hardly surprising.

Chicago's a BIG city Mikey.......won't ANYBODY play with you?

Come on now, boys and girls.....won't somebody PLEASE play with Mikey? It's
not his fault that he's......well....the way he is......um......o.k., maybe
it is, but that's really not the point is it? Underneath that loathsome
indifference to anything resembling human decency there probably beats a
heart of gold......mm.....the heart of a dung beetle.......or one of its
close kin......but solid gold nevertheless.

Wolfgang
and, lest anyone feel an overwhelming urge to point out that it would be sad
if it wasn't so DAMNED funny, i already knew that.