The people that I represent in Illinois care passionately about protecting open space and safeguarding our nation?s natural treasures, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The transportation bill now being considered in the House would greatly diminish safeguards for the refuge by opening up its entire 1.5 million-acre coastal plain to oil drilling. This is a mistake on many fronts.
Continue ReadingFirst, the refuge?s coastal plain is a national treasure, worthy of passing on to future generations of Americans. Birds from every state in the union migrate there to nest and raise young?including, from my district, the Northern Flicker and Long Tail Duck. It is the refuge?s biological heart and also provides vital habitat for polar bears, caribou and musk ox.
It was a Republican, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who first protected the Arctic Refuge to balance the oil development at Prudhoe Bay with responsible conservation. Today, the refuge?s coastal plain represents the last 5 percent of Alaska?s North Slope beyond the reach of development.
The balance that Eisenhower sought to preserve was the conservative thing to do ? and is even more essential today.
Providing for our nation?s transportation and infrastructure needs is absolutely critical, but it depends on having firm and reliable funding. The estimated amount of funding now attributed to future drilling in the refuge is speculative. It cannot provide anywhere near the certainty that projects authorized under this bill require.
Including the Arctic Refuge drilling provision will also likely complicate the transportation bill moving forward. It makes agreement with the Senate more difficult.
As a Republican, I am proud of my party?s rich legacy of conservation. From Theodore Roosevelt?s many accomplishments?including establishing our wildlife refuge system?to Illinois? own Ronald Reagan, who signed more wilderness bills into law than any other president.
The idea that conservation is conservative is no less valid today. We have an obligation to be good stewards of our natural treasures and fiscally responsible in funding our nation?s infrastructure.
Eisenhower, as the founder of our national interstate highway system and protector of the Arctic Refuge, knew how to do both. ?You and I, and our government,? Eisenhower warned, ?must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow.?
I hope we as a Congress will live by his conservative words and continue protecting the Arctic Refuge.
Rep. Robert Dold (R-Ill.) is a small business owner and sits on the Financial Services Committee.
jim jones matt barnes hcm loretta lynn gene kelly zoe saldana andrew bailey
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.