WASHINGTON - In an emotional and sometimes biting speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., blasted the environmental community Thursday for its opposition to oil exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Landrieu, who has received guarded political support from environmentalists over the years, said that "they have gone too far" in trying to block drilling in the Alaskan refuge and risk sending exploration to Third World nations where environmental laws are weaker than those in the United States.
"They would draw drilling off the most sophisticated nation on Earth into places that really are worth preserving because they aren't going to exist anymore because the environmental movement itself is going to destroy them," Landrieu said.
"I want to challenge the environmental community: Could you think about someone else besides us for a change? Could you think about the world?"
Adam Kolton of the Alaskan Wilderness League said he was "shocked and alarmed" by Landrieu's comments. He said they are reminiscent of those delivered by conservative Senate Republicans who routinely demonize environmentalists. He said that Landrieu, who is facing re-election this fall and has sought to position herself as a moderate in a conservative state, probably shouldn't count on the environmental vote, meager as its political clout is in Louisiana.
"She has made no secret of her support for the oil and gas industry," Kolton said. "But what we heard today is that she is not a supporter of the millions of Americans, including those in Louisiana, who care about preserving the environment."
Landrieu is among the few Democrats to publicly support President Bush's plan to drill in the Arctic refuge. She took the Senate floor Thursday to preview her amendment to the pending energy bill that would force all states to boost their production of energy or cut consumption, or face a loss of federal aid. But her strongest comments concerned the U.S. dependence on foreign sources of oil, which she condemned in remarkably personal terms. Echoing what has become a Republican theme during debate over the energy bill, Landrieu said that the United States' importation of more than half its oil puts national security at risk and has forced the government to dispatch soldiers to the Middle East to protect allied oil interests, as in the Gulf War.
"We've got people who think it's fine to send the soldiers," Landrieu said, her voice quavering with emotion. "I don't want to send my son. He's only 9. I'm hoping to keep him home, and that's what this debate is about."
Landrieu also said that the United States' dependence on Arab oil has undercut support of Israel at a time when Arab-Israeli tensions have risen to historically bloody proportions.
"Why can't we go help Israel anymore? Because we are so dependent on Arab countries to supply us with oil so we don't have to drill anywhere in the United State for oil," Landrieu said. "We just look at Israel every day in the paper and say 'I'm sorry another 60 people have died.' Well, this senator is going to do everything in my power to help change this view in the United States."
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