Bass Opposes Oil Drilling in Alaskan Refuge
WASHINGTON—New Hampshire Rep. Charles Bass and 10 other House Republicans have expressed opposition to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in a letter sent to House Budget Committee chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa).
Nussle will review President Bush’s proposed fiscal year 2004 budget, submitted to Congress Monday, which assumes revenue from oil drilling leases in part of the refuge, an area Congress has protected from oil and natural gas exploration or production since 1980.
The letter, sent Friday stated that the inclusion of language related to ANWR would “create unnecessary controversy when the budget is considered by the full House” and that the “best vehicle for such debate is as part of a larger energy bill, or stand-alone legislation, but not the budget resolution.”
“Repealing these protections is opposed by millions of Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike,” the letter stated.
“The Congress made a decision legislatively some 30 years ago that . . . determined that one part of [northern Alaska’s] North Slope would be used for oil and gas exploration and development and the other part would be preserved,” Bass—who has a history of supporting pro-environment legislation–said in an interview Wednesday. “Now that the resources are running out in the area that was delayed 25 or 30 years ago, they want to change the game, so to speak, and I just don’t think that that’s legitimate or supportable.”
The letter was sent, Bass said, because I don’t think the Budget Committee should create revenues from a source that is this controversial and has had as difficult a time passing in Congress as this particular issue has.”
Bass said he signed a similar letter to the Budget Committee chairman last year, when he was a senior member of the committee, opposing language related to ANWR in the fiscal year 2003 budget. He no longer serves on the committee.
“It was not included in the budget last year, so I hope the same thing will occur this year,” Bass said.
Catherine Corkery, a spokesperson for the Sierra Club’s New Hampshire Chapter, praised Bass Tuesday for his stand to protect wilderness areas around the country and called the signing of the letter “very exciting.”
“We have always supported Charlie Bass on his stand to protect the wild places, the special places in America, and the Arctic Refuge is one of those that we have supported him on on a number of occasions,” Corkery said. “It is one of the biggest issues for us in New Hampshire . . . and it’s really exciting to hear that he signed this letter.”
Because of the vast wilderness areas in the state, including the White Mountain National Forest, the people of New Hampshire understand the importance of protecting wilderness, including ANWR, even though many have never been there, Corkery said.
New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu said Tuesday that the majority of members in the House and Senate support oil production in some limited portion of northern Alaska “in order to help reduce our dependence on oil importation from the Middle East.” If drilling is allowed, Sununu said, it would affect the revenue the federal government collects and should therefore be accounted for in the budget.
“We’ll just wait and see what the Budget Committee wants to do, how they want to approach it, but if it’s not included in the budget I imagine we’ll take it up in legislation that’s brought out by the Energy Committee later this year,” Sununu said.
New Hampshire Rep. Jeb Bradley said Tuesday that he hopes Congress is able to preserve ANWR, but added that considering the country’s uncertain future and the possibility of war with Iraq, it is necessary to increase domestic production of oil.
“I’ve not supported drilling in ANWR at this point in time, although I also am not willing to say that we should never drill in ANWR at some point in time in the future given the uncertainty of the [current] international situation,” Bradley said.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
