(JUNEAU) - Recently U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) introduced an amendment to prevent the 1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from being opened to oil drilling. During the debate on her amendment Boxer stated, "Yes we know there would be jobs developed there, but it would destroy that coastline ..." "Keeping this 5 percent of the North Slope in its pristine environment ... is good for the soul of the country ..."

Dismayed by such comments and faulty logic Sen. Con Bunde (R-Anchorage) sponsored Senate Joint Resolution 16. Bunde believes that Boxer and other U.S. Senators who supported the Boxer amendment need to practice what they preach by ending Federal ethanol subsidies and returning the massive corporate ethanol producing corn fields in their states back to original prairie lands.

"Many of the Senators that spoke in favor of the Boxer Amendment represent the top 20 ethanol producing states in the country," said Bunde. "It is my intention with this resolution to open their eyes to the effects outside interference can have on a state's resource development. Since 1994 vehicles have burned regular gasoline as cleanly as they burn gas with ethanol, yet these Senators have fought hard to keep and increase Federal subsidies that has cost this country billions of dollars."

Bunde said, "U.S. Senators who are such ardent environmentalists when it comes to someone else's state are happy to have one of the Nation's largest and most influential businesses derive great profit from the production of ethanol in their states despite the detriment to the environment."

SJR 16 points those Senators to a way in which they can restore their own wild lands and wildlife, while saving billions in federal revenues and putting money back into the hands of the American driver in the process, according to Bunde.

While Sen. Bunde says he does not believe SJR 16 will affect Federal farm subsidies, or return cornfields to prairie lands, it is the Senator's hope that it will open the eyes of some U.S. Senators to the effects their policies have had on Alaskans.

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