The territory's Vuntut Gwitchin MLA is not ready to give up after losing a crucial vote in the U.S. Senate about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

New Democrat Lorraine Peter was in Washington D.C. this week to twist arms of U.S. senators on a vote about drilling for oil in the ANWR.

'I'm very disappointed, however, I'm still very hopeful,' Peter said yesterday in an interview from Washington after watching an amendment to protect ANWR defeated by a vote of 51-49.

'No, I do not see this as the end. It's just the beginning of another section of our addressing this issue.'

The amendment was brought forward by Washington Senator Maria Cantwell. It proposed removing part of the Senate's budget that would allow drilling in the refuge.

According to a press release posted on Cantwell's website, the provision to allow drilling has been put into the 2006 budget.

The provision directs the Senate energy committee to draft a law by June 6 that would create $2.5 billion in new revenue from exploration and development of ANWR's coastal plain.

Her release states that the Republican senator who leads that committee wants something drafted in four weeks.

Peter said she and other Gwitchin members, including Chief Joe Linklater, had been spending a lot of time speaking to a number of senators about why it's important to keep development out of the critical 1002 lands in the refuge.

She met with different key senators, leading up to the vote.

Specifically, Peter said there were six senators which were a target for the lobbyists, which includes the Alaska Wilderness League.

She didn't name all of those, but they included the two senators from Hawaii.

None of the targeted senators voted for the amendment.

She said there will be another opportunity to pull the drilling out of the budget. Peter hopes some senators will remove it because it was tacked onto a budget bill and some of them didn't like that tack.

Peter and the Vuntut Gwitchin have been fighting for years to keep the U.S. government from opening up part of the national park to exploration and drilling for oil.

The Gwitchin people have argued that the key area of the refuge along the Beaufort Sea coast must not have any development in it because it includes the calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd.

They argue that if there is any development, it may disturb the calving of the herd, which could lead to a decline in its population and possibly its extinction.

The Porcupine caribou herd, which migrates between Alaska and the N.W.T. each year, is a vital part of the Gwitchin people's lifestyle.

In an interview in Whitehorse yesterday, Yukon Liberal MP Larry Bagnell, who supports the Vuntut Gwitchin, said the caribou are particularly sensitive to anything abnormal during calving.

He said the area is ideal because of the food it provides and because it is not close to predators.

The concern is that if there is human activity, the caribou would move up into the mountains to do their calving. That could reduce the chances of the calves living since it brings them closer to predators and is not as ideal as the coastal area.

If fewer calves survive, the herd could dwindle, and the loss of not just a herd of caribou but the Gwitchin people and their current way of life.

Bagnell was not as optimistic as Peter, saying that drilling may not be as far off as some people believe.

'(It's) a very tragic turn of events,' said Bagnell, who was showing federal Social Development Minister Ken Dryden around Whitehorse yesterday.

However, he said he thinks 'there's hope for optimism.'

Bagnell decried the way the drilling provision was passed in the first place as a 'less than ethical way' of doing things.

He said there is a provision to filibuster a bill in the U.S. Senate and keep it from going forward. To end a filibuster, a motion would need 60-per-cent support.

However, this time, the provision to allow drilling was tacked onto a budget bill, meaning it could not be filibustered. This allowed for a 50-per-cent vote instead.

While Bagnell admitted this was legal, he didn't find it ethical.

'This is not the highest ideals of democracy,' said Bagnell.

To even get the vote as close as 51-49, a number of Republicans needed to be brought over to the anti-drilling camp, since that party has a majority hold on the Senate.

In total, the amendment had the support of 41 of the 44 Democrats plus seven of the 55 Republicans and the one independent.

The three Democrats the lobbyists could not sway were the two senators from Hawaii, Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka, and one of the two Democrats from Louisiana, Mary Landrieu.

The seven Republican supporters included former presidential contender John McCain (Arizona), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Norm Coleman (Minnesota), Susan Collins (Maine), Mike DeWine (Ohio), Lincoln Chafee (Rhode Island) and Gordon Smith (Oregon).

Louisiana Senator Landrieu explained her stance in a written statement on her website.

'For Louisiana and our nation, more domestic oil and gas production is vitally important. We need to be drilling more, not less. We need to be exploring new areas where the minimal environmental impact can be closely guarded,' the press release stated.

A number of Americans are concerned about a reliance on foreign oil and want to develop as much as possible in the U.S.

A statement on Cantwell's website said:

'Recent estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey suggest there are between 3.2 to 5 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil. The U.S. as a whole was on track to use more than 7.4 billion barrels in 2004, or about 20.4 million barrels per day, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA has also estimated that it would take seven to 10 years for oil from the Arctic to reach the market, meaning it would have no effect on today's high gasoline prices.'

'We can't drill our way to energy independence in the Arctic,' Cantwell said in the written statement.

'Most Americans agree that drilling in a wildlife refugeto secure a six-month supply of oil a decade from now just isn't worth it. There are far better options on the table that rely on American ingenuity, strategic investment, and revitalizing existing sources of oil supply.'

One of the high-profile supporters of the Gwitchin people is Democratic senator and former presidential hopeful John Kerry (Massachusetts).

'Today we saw a Republican sneak attack on one of our most treasured natural wonders. It's a sad day when the voices of the American people are ignored and the Senate sells off America's public lands to the highest bidder,' Kerry said in a written statement posted on his website.

Like Peter, Kerry indicated he wasn't giving up either.

'Our work is not done. In the last 24 hours alone, more than 260,000 Americans have stood with us in my online petition to fight to protect our Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That fight is not over,' said the senator.

While the Gwitchin and some senators were disappointed by the vote, Alaska's Republican duo was quite happy by finally winning a vote on the matter.

'We've been after this now for 24 years,' Ted Stevens, the state's senior senator said in a press release.

'We believe this is the greatest reservoir for oil and gas on the North American continent so it really must be explored and developed. The Senate has now moved towards keeping the promise it made to Alaskans in 1980.'

Junior Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski also showed her elation at the vote.

'This is a victory for Alaska where we have the opportunity to provide so much for the country when it comes to our energy resources,' said Murkowski.

The press release shows there is still another vote coming up where this vote could still be delayed again.