The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on funding to protect public lands and the environment. Unfortunately, a number of short-sighted amendments are likely to be offered to the appropriations bill. These amendments are aimed at developing oil shale, increasing oil and gas drilling of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), and opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration and drilling. While The Wilderness Society believes that the basic appropriations package deserves a "yes" vote, we will oppose any attempt to add these domestic energy amendments to the appropriations package.

The Wilderness Society opposes any energy amendments that would:

• Open protected lands on-shore or off-shore to oil and natural gas drilling because industry already possesses leases on 44 million acres of public lands but has begun developing less than 14 million acres of these lands. Leasing under the Bush administration's Bureau of Land Management has outpaced industry's ability to drill.
• Open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling when such drilling, if undertaken, would take at least ten years to yield a drop of oil and only represent 0.6 percent of world oil supplies by its peak at 2030. Opening the Arctic Refuge represents a drop in the bucket that would lessen gas prices by only a few pennies in twenty years.
• Lift the moratorium on commercial oil shale development before industry has developed the proper technology to viably extract oil from oil shale rock. The technological and environmental impediments to commercial oil shale extraction remain too great to ensure that irreversible damage won't be done to thousands of residents of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah and more than 2 million acres of public lands.

Meanwhile, the committee will be voting on a number of key funding items for the Interior Department, EPA and Forest Service. A brief synopsis follows below:

"The House Appropriations Committee should continue rejecting President Bush's repeated efforts to cut funding for the protection of public lands," says David Moulton, director of climate change policy and conservation funding for The Wilderness Society. "A yes vote on Wednesday will provide desperately needed resources to acquire and protect land, parks and refuges across America. 'This Land is Your Land' is not just a song - it's a reminder that our heritage needs protecting."

Highlights of the appropriations package:

• The budget for the environment - the Interior Department, EPA, and Forest Service - would receive $27.9 billion for an increase of $1.3 billion, or 4.9 percent over 2008.
• National Refuges: $469 million, an increase of $35 million over 2008 levels
• National Forests: $4.7 billion, a $235 million increase over FY08 and $473 million increase over Bush's request. This includes $70 million for legacy roads, which addresses  problem roads on national forests.
• National Parks: $2.6 billion, a $158 million increase in funding for the operational budgets
• Land and Water Conservation Fund, and Forest Legacy program: $225 million, an increase of 8.7 percent over FY 08 level
• Climate Change: $260 million, an increase of 39 percent over 2008