Congress Passes Key Conservation Measures

Maintaining the Moratorium that Protects our Coasts from New Drilling

We are elated that the House has once again reaffirmed its commitment to
protecting America’s coasts and the economies, recreation opportunities and
wildlife habitat they support by passing the Puttnam-Capps-Jim
Davis-Foley-Bill Young-Pallone amendment to maintain the moratorium.
Bipartisan support for the offshore drilling moratorium remains strong,
even as the rhetoric in Washington over energy rises. In the midst of
planning summer trips to the beach, Americans deserve energy policies that
save families money and protect their favorite vacation spots. Drilling off
our coasts won’t do either.

Although we are celebrating today’s victory, we must remain vigilant on
behalf of our beaches and coastal waters. The oil and gas industry and
their allies in Congress will not take 'no' for an answer. They have
coveted America's coasts for decades, and we fully expect them to pull out
all the stops in the coming weeks. House Resources Committee Chairman
Pombo (R-CA) and Senate Energy Committee Chairman Domenici (R-NM) are
already gearing up to push bills that would open up the coasts to
destructive oil and gas drilling. We can look under every rock and every
grain of sand in the U.S. and still not be able to drill our way to lower
energy prices. Offshore oil and gas drilling is the slowest, dirtiest and
most expensive way to produce energy. Opening our coasts to destructive
drilling would do little to lower prices or make us more energy
independent, but it would threaten our beaches with pollution and potential
oil spills and destroy billion-dollar tourism and fishing industries.
There are faster, cheaper, cleaner and longer-term energy solutions like
making our homes, offices, cars and trucks more efficient and clean,
renewable energy that will start saving families and businesses money today
and protect our coastal waters, beaches and economies.

Clean Water Amendment

We applaud Congress for passing the Oberstar-Leach-Dingell amendment –
reflecting the bipartisan position taken by 218 members of the House in
2003 – that prevents the EPA from using appropriated funds to implement a
policy directive that denies longstanding Clean Water Act anti-pollution
safeguards for streams, wetlands, ponds and other waters around the
country. For more than three decades, the Clean Water Act has protected
all of the nation’s waters from unregulated pollution, filling and
destruction. However, under EPA’s current policy, thousands of waters
already have been excluded from these safeguards, and thousands of miles of
streams and millions of acres of wetlands are at risk of losing protection
if this policy continues. Rather than squander the progress we have made
cleaning up our waters, today's vote ensures that that Americans have safe
water to drink and clean places to swim and fish.

Tongass Subsidy Amendment

In a victory for taxpayers and wild forests, Congress passed the
Chabot-Andrews amendment to stop taxpayer subsidies for the construction of
new logging roads on the Tongass National Forest. Taxpayer-subsidized
logging in the Tongass has cost millions. In 2005, the U. S. Forest
Service spent nearly $49 million of taxpayer money on the logging program
and logging roads in the Tongass National Forest. Yet private timber
companies paid the federal government only $500,000 in return for the
privilege to cut down hundreds of acres of old-growth rainforest. This
resulted in a $48 million loss to America’s taxpayer. In 2004, the
Chabot/Andrews amendment won on the floor of the House by a vote of
222-205, but was not included in the final bill. America’s taxpayers
deserve better, and so does America’s Rainforest.This was an important
victory, for reasons both fiscal and environmental.