OT-- ATTEMPTED BURGLARY

Taking advantage of the public's preoccupation with an impending war in Iraq, the Bush
administration and certain senators are trying once again to open the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge to oil drilling. They know they cannot win an open public debate, so the have attached
drilling to a budget bill and plan to vote within a week. Supposedly, the rules of the senate do not
permit filibusters of budget bills. Please contact your senators, which you can do at the web sites
of many environmental organizations, including NRDC and Sierra Club. Or call the capitol switchboard
at (202) 224-3121. This is not the right time to decide this important question. The coastal plain
of the Arctic Refuge is home to the last herd of musk oxen on U.S. territory, a nursery for polar
bears, and a seasonal destination for hundreds of kinds of birds. Much of the coastal plain to the
west is already pockmarked with development and litigating a long series of major and minor oil
spills. Please Don't let them trade our last great wilderness for a six month supply of oil!