environmental failures

and now, a message from the league of conservation voters:

The holiday season traditionally brings to mind a rush to take advantage of deep discounts at retailers. But depending on how Congressional negotiators hammer out a final budget bill, it could be big corporations that rush to a federal land give-away at the expense of taxpayers.

Tucked into the recently-passed House budget bill, Rep. Richard Pombo's (CA) provision would raid public lands by offering deep discounts to mining companies, who can then develop the land as they see fit -- for mining operations, housing developments, or whatever is on their wish-list. The New York Times calls Rep. Pombo's scheme "legislative robbery" and "a blatant fraud on the American people."

Big Oil's wish-list includes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- but thanks to a bipartisan effort, the House refused to gift this pristine habitat in their bill. The Senate version, however, includes reckless language to open the Arctic Refuge to oil extraction. We must keep the pressure on our elected officials to keep Arctic Refuge drilling out of a final bill.

In the coming days, LCV will be keeping a close watch on the House/Senate negotiations -- and we'll be calling on you to get involved. As their constituents, we need to keep the pressure on our elected officials to do the right thing.

For years now, we have seen how the Bush Administration and Congressional leadership have worked to attack our environmental and public health protections. With less than a year to go until the most pivotal mid-term elections in a generation, we must let our elected officials know that this holiday season, we'll be making our list and following who votes naughty and who votes nice.