| WASHINGTON - October 30 - Eight major
environmental organizations called today for the Senate to
investigate whether the Interior Department is withholding
scientific information critical to the congressional debate over
whether to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil
development.
In a letter to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the
Governmental Affairs Committee; Sen. Jim Jeffords, chairman of
the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Rep. James
Hansen, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, the
organizations pointed to recent news reports that have raised
serious questions about whether Congress has been fully informed
on the issue now before the Senate.
The letter was signed by Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice
Legal Defense Fund, Friends of the Earth, National Audubon
Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club,
U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and The Wilderness Society.
The Washington Post reported today that the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service has warned in two internal reports that opening
the Arctic refuge to oil development might violate an
international agreement to protect polar bears. But the Post
said those reports have never reached Congress.
"During the current heated debate in Congress over the
future of the Arctic refuge, it is imperative for lawmakers and
the public to have all the facts and a transparent process for
evaluating the science. Yet this critical biological data still
appears not to have been provided to Congress," the letter from
the environmental organizations said.
Late last week, four of these environmental organizations,
including Defenders of Wildlife, asked the Senate to look into
discrepancies in testimony given by Interior Secretary Gale
Norton about the legislative proposal to drill for oil in the
Arctic refuge. Norton has drawn criticism for Senate committee
testimony in which she left out scientific data from the Fish
and Wildlife Service showing that drilling would harm caribou.
The Washington Post reported that Norton also added erroneous
data that would have bolstered the case for drilling if it had
been true.
"These discrepancies raise serious questions regarding the
scientific integrity of the Department's answers, and the
process by which these answers were developed within the
Department," the environmental organizations said in their
letter to Lieberman, Jeffords and Hansen.
Defenders Vice President Robert Dewey said: "It appears that
when Secretary Norton says policy will be based on sound
science, she really means science that sounds good to her.
Members of Congress need the Secretary of the Interior to play
straight with them on polar bears, caribou and other wildlife
that would be harmed by drilling in the refuge, and it's not
clear that she is."
Defenders of Wildlife is a leading nonprofit conservation
organization recognized as one of the nation's most progressive
advocates for wolf recovery in the United States. With more than
470,000 members and supporters, Defenders of Wildlife is an
effective leader on endangered species issues. For more
information on this issue or other Defenders of Wildlife
projects, please visit www.defenders.org, and for regular
updates on important wildlife issues, subscribe to the DENLines
bi-weekly electronic alert at www.defenders.org/den.
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