Claim: Calling the White House will help influence President Clinton to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from commercial development by designating it a national monument.
Status: Not any more.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2001]
Sen. Frank Murkowski had a column in last Sunday's Outlook Section of The Washington Post, calling for opening up this glorious area to oil exploration. George W. Bush says this is going to be one of his priorities. Even though Clinton is president for only a few more weeks, he can still designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to be a National Monument which would forever protect that pristine wilderness from oil drilling and other commercial development. Bush has already stated that he will turn the Refuge over to big oil. Clinton is on his way out and is sympathetic to this cause and has already protected more wildlands since Teddy Roosevelt was president. All he needs is a push from the public. Call the White House hotline at (202) 456-1111 (press "0" when prompted) from 8:30-5:00 EST and tell the comments-line operator that you want President Clinton to declare the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to be a National Monument as the last great environmental act of his presidency. This one action may result in You may also send the president an email at: president@whitehouse.gov or
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Origins: This was a legitimate issue, but the White House announced on
Whether the lack of national monument status will open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration is still a subject of debate, however. As the Associated Press reported:
Monument designation provides increased protection against development. Such protection already is written into law for the ANWR, Siewert said, legislation from the Carter administration that specifically Lawmakers can enact legislation to allow development, but "it would be very hard to open it up to drilling given the narrow split that exists in Congress," Siewert said.
"We believe, after consulting with our environmental team, that ANWR has something that some of the other areas we looked at does not
prevents oil drilling.
Last updated: 15 December 2007
Sources: