Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) issued the following statement after his vote to support maintaining the pristine quality of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Congressman Emanuel voted to protect the ANWR region from exploitative drilling by voting for the Markey/Johnson Amendment.

“Today I voted against the Energy Bill because I refuse to vote for any legislation opening one of America’s most pristine treasures – the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – to the inevitable destruction of oil drilling. But more importantly, I voted against this bill because it fails to address America’s energy needs.

Two things have happened in the past few months; gas prices went through the roof and oil companies have realized tremendous profits. I’m baffled as to why we have written a bill that distorts the free market by providing billions of dollars in tax credits and does little or nothing to help reduce our energy consumption.

Unfortunately we can’t have a debate about an effective energy policy because the Republican leadership has attached a provision opening ANWR to oil exploration. There is little evidence that drilling in ANWR is economically viable, the American public opposes drilling in ANWR by a margin of two to one, and the Senate recently defeated a similar provision. Clearly this is a bad idea, but it was still included. Why? Because the oil companies have high paid lobbyists with friends in the Republican Party. I guarantee that if ANWR had the same friends, we wouldn’t be drilling there.”