The Sierra Club Political Committee recently endorsed incumbent Sen. Daniel Akaka for the U.S. Senate. The endorsement drew a storm of controversy because it was "totally political," said those who support Akaka's opponent, Cynthia Thielen. The Sierra Club endorsed Thielen for the Hawai'i state House, representing Kailua.

The Sierra Club makes political endorsements during election cycles to advance conservation issues, educate voters and create common ground and dialogue with political candidates running for public office. Much of the endorsement process for national elections involves sharing national environmental priorities with candidates, and highlighting the legislation required to resolve controversial issues of the era — thus oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is part of the debate in Hawai'i.

Let it be understood unequivocally: The Sierra Club is saddened by Sen. Akaka's votes to support oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge. Nowhere on earth is there an ecosystem that supports an annual 3,200-mile migration where the 130,000-strong porcupine caribou herd returns every year to calve their young. This National Wildlife Refuge supports 187 species of birds, polar and grizzly bear, wolves, musk ox, dall sheep and a land of biodiversity so sensitive and dynamic that scientists consider this area the biological heart of the North American Arctic.

Also at stake in the Arctic debate are the indigenous Native Alaskans of the region: Inupiat Eskimo and the Gwichin Athabascan natives who rely on the caribou for their subsistence.

In April of 1995, Sen. Akaka visited the Eskimo village of Kaktovik in the Arctic Refuge when the land was frozen in ice. The 1995 visit was hosted by the oil lobby group Arctic Power, together with corporate Eskimos representing the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., the richest corporation in Alaska due to oil profits from Prudhoe Bay. Based on that visit, Akaka and others chose to support the native corporate viewpoint of oil development popular at that time.

Eleven years later, the situation on the ground has changed, and the indigenous people in the Arctic have vastly different feelings about oil and gas development. Petroleum industrialization has placed at risk their very way of life, including the subsistence rights of the native residents, resulting in negative and severe consequences to their environment, health and social well-being such as in the Inupiat village of Nuiqsut.

Recently, Akaka has agreed to become a member of a new congressional committee making plans to travel to the Arctic refuge in July 2007 while the refuge is in bloom, with all of its natural summer glory. The plans are to include meetings with traditional non-corporate Eskimos and Gwichin leaders whom the senator didn't speak with in 1995.

It is our belief that as he sees and hears from the natives about their fears and the negative environmental and social impacts of oil drilling, this new evidence will be so compelling that Akaka will change his position. Since 95 percent of the American Arctic already is open to oil drilling, preserving the remaining 5 percent as a pristine refuge for the future will be a fitting legacy for the senator.

The Sierra Club political committee invests a lot of time looking into a candidate's record. With Akaka's 30 years of public service there was a lot to study, including his legislative support of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Ocean Dumping Act, Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act and National Invasive Species and Conservation Act. His advocacy for national parks funding and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and opposition to nuclear proliferation and atmospheric nuclear testing in the Pacific are other examples.

Akaka is also working to address the issue of global warming and climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Akaka opposed industry and the Bush administration's "Clear Skies" legislation, supporting instead the Clean Power Act promoting fuels such as ethanol, biomass, biodiesel and hydrogen, while supporting passenger-car fuel efficiency and tax credits for alternative-fuel vehicles, hybrids and clean passenger vehicles.

Akaka supported the Automobile Fuel Efficiency and Fuel Economy Acts of 2005, offered as amendments to the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Should passenger vehicles ramp up their fuel efficiency to 40 miles per gallon, oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would become an obsolete notion. Further, Sen. Akaka's environmental record earned him a 100 percent score by the League of Conservation Voters for 2006.

The Sierra Club looks forward to continued communication and dialogue with Akaka and his staff. With Akaka's seniority (34th), his potential chairmanship of the National Parks Committee and seniority on other committees, we believe he, together with his experienced staffers, will serve Hawai'i well.

Sen. Akaka deserved the Sierra Club endorsement as did state Representative Cynthia Thielen, the Sierra Club endorsement to the state House. No snub was or is intended.

Lance Holter chairs the political and conservation committee of the Sierra Club's Hawai'i Chapter. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.