Ed Markey: “thank you, and I thank the great Senator from Washington State for her leadership on this incredibly important issue. If…”

“thank you, and I thank the great Senator from Washington State for her leadership on this incredibly important issue. If this tax bill weren't terrible enough, it goes after one of the most beautiful places on Earth, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is nothing more than a Big Oil polar payout. This isn't about drilling oil; it is about drilling for votes. This isn't about crude oil; it is the crudest of politics. We now have 41 cosponsors of my legislation with Senator Bennet to permanently protect the Arctic Refuge by designating it as a wilderness. That is enough to sustain a filibuster, and that is precisely why they are circumventing the normal legislative process by including it as a rider on a tax bill. In reality, drilling turns this pristine wilderness into an industrialized wasteland. The Coastal Plain is the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge, and allowing oil and gas drilling would drive a stake right through the heart of it. We are currently sending nearly 1 million barrels a day of American crude oil overseas, but Republicans and the their oil industry allies are saying we need to allow drilling in the wildest place left in America so we can export even more oil to China and other foreign nations. It is an abomination. It is a disgrace. Drilling in a wilderness area in order to send oil to China--it is a disgrace.…”