Hello my beloved Emergence readers.

In a word: WOW! The energy really brings in a strong headwind from the bow! But we tilt our face to the sun and in the energy of One shout "I'm the king of the world!" in love, peace & joy. Unfortunately, it also brings forth change at our feet that we must be viligant to. For as Jesus said in the last Spiritlife message, we are the Prophets who must speak Truth. The increases in oil prices around the world are causing a reactionary fear in Washington and consumers. Washington is beating to the drum of "Drill,Drill,Drill!" This was even chanted eerily throughout the Republican National Convention recently in St. Paul. A vote is nearing for more offshore drilling in North America, specifically the United States. Land that has been protected for decades. Furthermore, three-quarters of the 90 million-plus acres of federal land already leased for oil drilling are not being worked. Oil companies deny this. Regardless of who is right, the number of operating oil rigs in North America declined across the course of 2007. So, in other words, that's all they need is another big land grab. Even if they did begin drilling right away it would be sometime before it had any effect on consumers at the gas pump. But, the damage to ecosystems and those that rely on the habitats where they are proposing new drilling would be devastating at a time when our planet is in extreme peril. Know this in your heart my friends. It is indeed the 11th hour for our beloved Earth. A tipping point. There is no longer a debate in the science community- there is a unified concensus worldwide. And so it is that we are seeing the choice and the shift of drilling for more oil vs. saving our planet and her thousands of habitat that is under assault.

In the book "God's covenant with animals" author J.R. Hyland correctly states that from Genesis to Christ, the Bible testifies to God's love and concern for animals. The same self-centeredness that led to the violence and abuse that has marked human relations also caused the abuse and exploitation of animals. The Bible, argues the author, calls upon human beings to stop their violence and abuse of each other and all other creatures. It promises that when they do, the sorrow and the suffering that marks life on Earth will give way to the joy and peace that God ordained at the creation of the world. In these compelling essays, Rev. J. R. Hyland explores the Old and New Testament and reveals the prophetic voices that called for compassion over killing, and humane concern for all of God's creation.

I do not not like to participate in the energy of fear dear ones, but yet to run to the hilltop with the small if not meek amount of sound that I am capable of to tell you that in all but the few remaining previously protected areas, such as 50 miles or more off American coastal shores, and the Artic Wildlife refuge, God's animal kingdom is crying out every single day. Please be awakened and use your voice to your legislative leaders. ~ Jill


It may be the eleventh hour of the Bush/Cheney Administration, but that's not stopping their efforts to undermine the Endangered Species Act.

The Administration wants to make serious changes to this landmark law that would eliminate some of the most important checks and balances that protect our wolves, polar bears and other imperiled wildlife.

We can help stop them. Just go to the website below and submit your comments now to the Fish & Wildlife Service opposing this terrible new rule change:

http://action.defenders.org/helpendangeredwildlife

For more than 30 years, the Endangered Species Act has protected wildlife at risk of extinction. Now the Bush/Cheney Administration wants to gut this landmark law by eliminating vital checks and balances that are crucial to protect our wolves, polar bears and other imperiled wildlife.

Speak out now for polar bears, wolves and the nearly 1400 species currently protected under the Endangered Species Act!
Visit the website below and speak out for endangered species:

http://action.defenders.org/helpendangeredwildlife

Our wildlife is one of America's most precious natural resources. Thanks for helping me protect it!

Defenders of Wildlife is a national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities.

Defenders of Wildlife can be contacted at:
1130 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
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Offshore Drilling Is Coming to a Vote
Democrats to Offer a Mix of Proposals

By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 14, 2008; A04



Congressional Democrats, balancing political reality against a policy they have long opposed, are on the cusp of approving legislation that would open the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to oil drilling as close as 50 miles offshore.

With votes scheduled this week in the House and Senate, Democrats have essentially given up defending the current ban on drilling within 200 miles offshore along both coasts. Instead, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), they are offering a mix of proposals that would allow drilling, with the waters off Massachusetts, Virginia and Georgia most likely to be the first affected.

Environmentalists and industry analysts disagree over the impact the various legislative proposals would have on oil production, with industry experts contending that the most precious reserves still would be off-limits. But both sides agree that -- because of the politics of $4-a-gallon gasoline this summer and a pending legislative deadline -- the nearly 40-year drilling ban is in jeopardy.

"It's in deep, deep trouble. I won't pronounce it dead, but it's in deep trouble," said Warner Chabot, a vice president of the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental group opposed to drilling.

House and Senate Democrats have been assembling different proposals for the past few weeks after absorbing months of Republican criticism as gas prices soared. Under pressure from moderate Democrats fearful of November election losses, Pelosi took the first formal step Wednesday by unveiling a proposal that would open the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to drilling at least 100 miles offshore. If governors and state legislatures agree, drilling off each state's coast would be allowed 50 miles from shore.

Pelosi had previously suggested opening only portions of the southeastern Atlantic coast and some of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to drilling, but ultimately offered to allow drilling off both coastlines. The eastern gulf off Florida's west coast would remain off-limits.

Under the Pelosi bill, scheduled for a vote Tuesday, the federal government would not share royalties with the states, devoting the money instead toward federal funding for renewable energy resources. Taxes on oil companies would be increased, with that revenue also going to alternative energy sources.

A separate proposal, developed by about 20 Senate Democrats and Republicans, also would move the drilling boundary to 100 miles offshore, with states given the option to set it at 50 miles. But under that plan, new Atlantic drilling would be limited to Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The Senate plan would allow no drilling in the Pacific.

In a key difference with Pelosi's bill, the Senate legislation would allow new drilling off Florida's west coast.

Some industry experts question the effect of the proposals, citing federal studies that show that more than 80 percent of known oil reserves are inside the 50-mile limit and therefore unavailable. Very little is known about oil reserves beyond 100 miles. Waters off almost the entire Pacific coast -- where all three governors oppose drilling at the 50-mile barrier -- is considered too deep for drilling 100 miles offshore.

"You would just open a door to an empty room at the end of a very long hallway," said Brian Kennedy, spokesman for the Institute for Energy Research, an organization funded by the oil industry. Kennedy also said that, without some sort of revenue sharing for state governments, there would be little incentive for states to approve additional drilling.

With revenue sharing, Virginia and Georgia would quickly approve offshore drilling at the 50-mile mark, Kennedy and some environmental experts predicted. The biggest target for new drilling at the 100-mile mark would be in the Georges Bank, off the coasts of Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire, where cod fishing was once the dominant industry. Oil and natural gas already are extracted not far away, in Canadian waters.

The most sought-after area, however, is the eastern Gulf of Mexico near Florida's western coast. Drilling rigs already operate in the gulf off Houston, New Orleans and Mississippi, giving oil producers a near-certain guarantee of finding oil near Florida. It also would be less costly for producers to move their production and delivery systems to the other side of the gulf than to place new rigs in previously unexplored regions of the Atlantic or Pacific.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) has vowed to filibuster any legislation that would open the waters off Florida's western beach resorts, to protect his state's tourism industry and the military testing areas for Navy and Air Force bases in the region. "If they want to get something done, they have to deal with me," Nelson said in an interview Friday.

Republicans have been skeptical about Pelosi's proposal, because environmental groups such as the Sierra Club have endorsed it as "a chance for clean energy gains that would represent a giant step in solving our energy crisis."

Many lawmakers privately predict the energy legislation will stall in parliamentary gridlock, but Congress has its own statutory deadline to deal with by Sept. 30. At that point, the annual congressional moratorium on offshore drilling expires. President Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling early this summer.

That means Pelosi has barely two weeks to forge a compromise or face the end of the moratorium. That would allow drilling within three miles off all coasts. Faced with such a predicament, Democrats are increasingly likely to add their new drilling legislation to a catchall spending bill that will fund most of the government into next year.

Such a decision would dare Bush to veto the legislation and shut down the federal government over the GOP's preferred drilling plan. But if Republicans accepted the compromise, it would lead to increased offshore oil drilling under the watch of a Democratic Congress, a concept that was unfathomable just six weeks ago.