Nancy Johnson has moved from being a quiet champion of the wilderness bill to leading the charge in opposition to the Republican leadership's effort to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Nancy Johnson has moved from being a quiet champion of the wilderness bill to leading the charge in opposition to the Republican leadership's effort to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has at least twice penned a Dear Colleague letter to the Budget Committee Chair and the leadership urging that they not use the budget process to advance Arctic drilling and got a dozen of her moderate Republican colleagues to join.

Rep. Nancy Johnson has always been a champion of legislation to protect the Arctic Refuge as a wilderness area. Showing great independence, Rep. Johnson has led the effort in the House to block efforts to use the budget process to open up the refuge to oil and gas exploration. Her leadership has been indispensable to the millions of Americans who place a priority on safeguarding our environment and protecting America?s great wilderness areas.

We're solving global warming one city at a time.

I'm ashamed by the Bush administration's decision to sit on the sidelines of the conference as an observer.

This innovative rainforest agreement provides a real world example of how people and wilderness can prosper together.