House Drops Arctic Drilling From Bill

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 1:02am

From The AP:

"House leaders late Wednesday abandoned an attempt to push through a hotly contested plan to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling, fearing it would jeopardize approval of a sweeping budget bill Thursday.

They also dropped from the budget document plans to allow states to authorize oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts — regions currently under a drilling moratorium.

The actions were a stunning setback for those who have tried for years to open a coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, to oil development, and a victory for environmentalists, who have lobbied hard against the drilling provisions. President Bush has made drilling in the Alaska refuge his top energy priority.

The House Rules Committee formalized the change late Wednesday by issuing the terms of the debate when the House takes up the budget package on Thursday.

The decision to drop the ANWR drilling language came after GOP moderates said they would oppose the budget if it was kept in the bill. The offshore drilling provision was also viewed as too contentious and a threat to the bill, especially in the Senate.

Last week, the Senate included ANWR drilling in its version of the budget, so the matter will have to be thrashed out in negotiations between the Senate and House if the budget is approved by the House.

Protection of the Alaska refuge from oil companies has been championed by environmentalists for years. The House repeatedly has approved drilling in the refuge as part of broad energy legislation, only to see their effort blocked each time by the threat of a filibuster in the Senate.

The budget bill is immune from filibuster, but drilling proponents suddenly found it hard to get the measure accepted by a majority of the House. That's because Democrats oppose the overall budget bill, giving House GOP opponents of drilling in the Arctic enough leverage to have the matter killed.

The move in the House was yet another setback for Bush, whose Social Security overhaul also has stalled in Congress. At the same time, his presidency has been troubled by mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq, the withdrawal of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers and the investigation over the leak of a CIA operative's identity.

Twenty-five Republicans, led by Rep. Charles Bass of New Hampshire, signed a letter asking GOP leaders to strike the Alaskan drilling provision from the broader $54 billion budget cut bill.

"Rather then reversing decades of protection for this publicly held land, focusing greater attention on renewable energy sources, alternate fuels, and more efficient systems and appliances would yield more net energy savings than could come from ANWR and would have a higher benefit on the nation's long-term economic leadership and security," they said.

The moderates knew they had leverage, given the narrow margin of GOP control of the House. It only takes 14 Republican defections to scuttle a bill, assuming every Democrat opposes it.

Still, removing the Arctic oil drilling provision could incite a backlash from lawmakers who strongly favor it, which is a big majority of Republicans. House and Senate GOP leaders are likely to push hard to get the ANWR proposal back into the bill in negotiations on a final document."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051110/ap_on_go_co/arctic_refuge

[Chloe]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 1:24am

I'm really, really happy about this. Thanks for posting it.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 1:55am

I can't believe drilling from a wildlife refuge was even considered. Has Bush no decency whatsoever?

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 3:35am

Good. These people at my school haven't shut up about this since September; I'm sick of getting flyers about it every time I walk across campus. I thought it was a bad idea the first time I heard about it, but there's only so much I can take.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 6:18am

By all means, lets continue to be totally dependant on mideast oil as domestic oil production continues to plummet. We are a spoiled society. We want more gas but want no drilling for it. We want more electric power but no one wants a power plant next to them. NIMBY is a disease spreading across the nation

I guess that being at the mercy of OPEC, Venezuela & the events in the middle east such as the bombing in Jordan is the thing to do. Everyone screams about the high price of oil but when steps are taken to try & relieve that dependency , the weak kneed Republicans cave & the other side hails these decisions. They deservedly will lose one or both houses of Congress next year.

The doom & gloomers re the Alaskan pipeline were wrong. Imagine the price of oil today without the pipeleine. When gas goes up again in the future & does not come back down, please remember how happy you were about todays decision

[yodamarie78]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 11:04am

No Mr Roxy, by all means let's find ways to become less dependant on oil period.

[touchmeinthemorning]

Posted: 11/10/05 at 11:12am

It's this kind of politicing that makes it very hard for ANY politician to not "flip flop" (it's even worse in the senate).

Glad things worked out in this case, but so many people think the bills are straight forward...and they never are. Sometimes, you can't vote for a bill because of what gets tacked on at the last minute. Then, when you're campaigning, people throw it in your face (and that one second attack can't be responded to without explaining the complexity of the issues -- which the average American doesn't want to hear about).