mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time , and i rise in strong support of the markey amendment . 
i consider this one of the most important environmental votes congress will cast this year , the vote to protect the arctic national wildlife refuge from oil and gas drilling . 
according to the u.s. geographical survey , this area would produce far less oil than the u.s. consumes in a single year , and is the only conservation area that protects a complete spectrum of arctic and sub-arctic ecosystems in north america . 
the ecosystem will be seriously damaged by drilling in the anwr , make no mistake about it . 
roads , pipelines , drilling platforms and communities to support personnel all involve disturbing this critical natural habitat by moving a great deal of extremely heavy equipment across fragile lands , by locating multi-ton rigs and whole communities of people to support the drilling operation on this fragile land base . 
drilling supporters claim that everything can be done in the refuge using ice roads and platforms . 
but even if ice roads did not melt in summer months , the reality is that there is simply not enough water in the refuge to create the roads and platforms necessary to drill in the anwr refuge . 
just building 1 mile of road takes a million gallons of water . 
there are only eight lakes scattered across the refuge containing enough unfrozen water to build a mile or more of ice roads . 
that means the only alternative truly is permanent gravel roads crisscrossing the refuge and , in fact , there is not one oil field in alaska 's north slope that does not have permanent gravel roads . 
some drilling supporters cite the central arctic caribou herd as illustrating that the caribou and drilling can coexist harmoniously . 
but calving females have completely withdrawn from the drilling area around prudhoe bay and are declining around the kuparak complex . 
while there is ample area for the central arctic herd to move away from the drilling facilities for calving and still be supported , this is not the case for the porcupine caribou herd . 
they are a much larger herd and the coastal plain where they calve is much smaller . 
they would be displaced into the foothills where both they and their calves would be extremely vulnerable to predators . 
finally , it would take a decade to deliver oil from the anwr , and the amount , again , as i said earlier , would be very limited , according to the u.s. geological survey . 
on the other hand , the national petroleum reserve and other areas are capable of providing far more oil . 
in fact , the federal government , the state of alaska , the arctic slope regional corporation , and others are in the process of leasing 50 million undeveloped acres in this region . 
we do not need to drill on the anwr plain . 
if we were to increase the fuel efficiency of automobiles by just 3 miles per gallon , we would save a million barrels of oil a day , five times the amount we would get out of anwr . 
or , if just california increased their use of currently available clean diesel technology cars , pickups and suvs just to the levels seen in europe today , just california could save 110 million gallons of gasoline by the year 2010 . 
so this vote is not about oil , it is about our values and how we balance the value we place on a critical environmental resource and its ecosystems , and the value we place on exploration in a low-yield area . 
indeed , it is about prudent stewardship . 
