John Kerry: “we have debated for years, all the years that I have been here, the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. It is stunning that an issue…”

“we have debated for years, all the years that I have been here, the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. It is stunning that an issue as controversial, as divisive as that would be put on a bill that needs to pass by unanimous consent. I know Senator Stevens and others have said we have had bills on which we have put a number of different items, such as the omnibus bill back in the days of President Clinton where we put seven or eight items on it--I forget exactly how many. But the difference is we did it with unanimity. We did not have a divided Senate over that issue. We did not have a vote. We all agreed all of those items ought to go into the bill. What is different here is the disagreement, is the division over this issue. The fact is, many of us are very passionate about this issue, so much so that the Senate has been divided by one vote. A one-vote division is being disrespected in this effort because they know the rules of the Senate would prohibit them from doing it without changing and breaking those rules. The fact is, ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to any definition I have ever seen, ceases to be a refuge. All the efforts to gloss over it do exactly that, they simply gloss over it. The fact is, we have heard arguments that you can somehow drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in an environmentally friendly manner. We have heard that drilling in the refuge is going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.…”