WASHINGTON - At 11:23 PM last night, 36 Democratic members of the US House joined with 186 Republicans to give George W. Bush and the oil industry a major victory in their plans to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling.
The House voted 223-206 to defeat an amendment, sponsored by Democrat Edward J. Markey, that would have eliminated the Alaskan drilling proposal. Thirty-four Republicans voted to ban drilling, while 36 Democrats voted to allow it. Shortly after midnight, the House passed the entire measure on a vote of 240-189.
The 36 Democrats are:
Joe Baca (CA, 42nd)
Marion Berry (AR, 1st)
Sanford Bishop Jr (GA, 2nd)
Allen Boyd (FL, 2nd)
Robert Brady(PA, 1st)
Brad Carson (OK)
James Clyburn (NC, 6th)
Robert 'Bud' Cramer (AL, 5th)
Cal Dooley (CA, 20th)
Chet Edwards (TX, 11th)
Gene Green (TX, 29th)
Ralph Hall (TX, 4th)
Earl Hilliard (AL, 7th)
William Jefferson (LA, 2nd)
Christopher John (LA, 7th)
Paul Kanjorski (PA, 11th)
Ken Lucas (KY, 4th)
Frank Mascara (PA, 20th)
Alan Mollohan (WV, 1st)
John Murtha (PA, 12th)
James Oberstar (MN, 8th)
Solomon Ortiz (TX, 27th)
Collin Peterson (MN, 7th)
David Phelps (IL, 19th)
Silvestre Reyes (TX, 16th)
Mike Ross (AR, 4th)
Max Sandlin (TX, 1st)
Ronnie Shows (MS, 4th)
Ike Skelton (MO, 4th)
Charlie Stenholm (TX, 17th)
John Tanner (TN, 8th)
Gene Taylor (MS, 5th)
Bennie Thompson (MS, 2nd)
Edolphus Towns (NY, 10th)
James Traficant (OH, 17th)
Jim Turner (TX, 2nd)
If any fans of Indymedia are still Democrats, this vote of 36 Democrats against the environment and for oil profits should be hopefully the last straw to get you to change. Anyone with any sense of decency would vote No on drilling for oil and gas in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Democrats of course have no decency because they represent the same capitalist class that the Republicans represent and only give lip service to environmental causes to get votes. The record of the Democratic Party on the environment is abysmal.
--At the end of the Clinton Administration, Clinton refused to designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a National Monument, which would have made it more difficult to obtain Congressional approval to drill for oil and gas there.
--The Clinton Administration resisted new standards regarding arsenic in drinking water for 8 years, and only at the end of those 8 years did Democratic Pres. Bill Clinton sign an order for new standards regarding arsenic in drinking water, and those regulations do not require compliance until 2004.
--The Clinton Administration had contempt for the Kyoto Accords on greenhouse gases and global warming. For 8 years, the Clinton Administration did not bring the US into compliance with the Kyoto Accords on these issues. Clinton broke his 1992 promise to raise the auto fuel efficiency standards. Meanwhile, the number of gas-guzzling SUVs increased while fuel efficiency decreased. At the end of those 8 years, the Clinton Administration demanded that US carbon dioxide reductions be cut to the extent US forests and farms are carbon sinks.
--The Clinton Administration twice suppressed earlier versions of an EPA study that the Bush Administration decided not to release showing that dioxin is more dangerous than previously understood.
Unlike the Democrat-Republicans, Peace & Freedom Party is an environmental party and opposes drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a matter of principle, and we do not compromise our principles. Our environmental program includes:
--Massive development of free public transportation to reduce reliance on automobiles.
--Replacing fossil and nuclear power with a multi-source energy system based on solar and other forms of renewable energy
--An end to clear-cutting of old-growth forests and a genuine reforestation program
--An end to the use of unnecessary and harmful agricultural chemicals and their replacement by means which lead to healthy soil, farm workers and consumers
--Effective democratic planning for urban and regional development based on the principles of sound ecosystems management, to reconstruct our cities and revitalize and preserve our open space, recreational, agricultural and wilderness regions.
If you would like to be part of such an environmental party, as well as a party that supports labor, peace, gay rights, women's rights, all other civil rights and socialism, joint Peace & Freedom Party now. Just check "other" on your voter registration form and write in "Peace & Freedom Party. For more information, see http://www.peaceandfreedom.org