John Kerry on the Republican Leadership’s Failure to Ram ANWR Drilling through House of Representatives

Last night I reported that the House had dropped the provision from the Budget Bill to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. John Kerry has been a leader in the fight against drilling in the Arctic Refuge. He released the following statement this morning, regarding the failure of the GOP leadership to ram ANWR Drilling through the House :

“George Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress have failed to twist enough arms and intimidate enough moderate Republicans to sneak through Congress the alpha and omega of big oil giveaways - drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It’s testimony to the President’s slumping political standing that he can no longer force the Republican Party to walk the plank in grudging support of a blatant special interest giveaway that vast majorities of Americans oppose.

“President Bush has no energy plan and refuses to acknowledge we can’t drill our way to energy independence; we must invent our way there.

“Thanks to grassroots citizen action, we’ve won another skirmish in a decade-long battle over the Arctic Refuge. I’m sure the drill-at-all-costs Republicans will return with more underhanded attempts to turn the Refuge over to the special interests, and we will continue to fight them every step of the way.”