Lawmakers Oppose Alaska Drilling
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 – House leaders agreed Wednesday to drop a plan from the budget bill to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling following fierce opposition, led by Congressman Charles Bass (R- N.H.).
“We’re happy to report that at this point the budget package will not contain provisions to drill in the Arctic refuge,” Bass said at a press conference Thursday. “My colleagues who in the face of considerable pressure — peer pressure and pressure from leadership — stuck to their guns and sent a clear message to leadership that we would not vote for this package no matter how long the vote is open, no matter what arm-twisting occurs, no matter who calls on the telephone, and we plan to project that position forward to the final conference committee report.”
The debate centers on a 1.5-million-acre section of the 19-million-acre refuge. President Bush has made drilling there a centerpiece of his energy policy, and oil companies have pushed for years for the legislation, arguing that they can drill without ruining the wilderness. Opponents argue that the entire refuge should be left undeveloped.
The language originally in the Deficit Reduction Act would have allowed drilling for oil and natural gas in the refuge, which is also known as ANWR. Bass, who is the co-chairman of the House’s Tuesday Group, a moderate Republican organization, authored a letter to the House leadership stating his strong opposition to the inclusion of this language in the budget bill.
“Opening up ANWR to drilling would dramatically shift U.S. environmental policy,” Bass said in a press release Tuesday. “A change this significant necessitates an open, substantive policy debate that can only occur in a stand-alone measure.”
Bass’s letter was signed by 25 other moderate Republican members of Congress and presented to the House leadership, prompting the leaders to remove the provision from the bill. The members opposed the drilling provision on environmental grounds.
“The critical value of this Refuge to the Arctic and sub-Arctic wildlife is undeniable,” Bass wrote in the letter. “Rather than 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.”
Other members critical of the drilling proposal made similar points at Thursday’s press conference, citing the preservation of this area as a major concern.
“I am not anti-energy. I’m not anti-oil drilling, but ANWR should stand as a pristine area that should not be despoiled by oil drilling,” Congressman Joe Schwarz (R- MI) said Thursday. “There are numbers of things that could be done there without actually drilling in ANWR.”
The bill, which was scheduled to be voted on Thursday, was delayed until next week. Assuming it passes the House, it will then go to a conference of House and Senate legislators who will iron out the differences between the two chambers’ bills. Because the Senate version of the bill has the drilling provision, it could be reattached there. However, Bass and his moderate Republican coalition intend to continue their opposition.
“We will not waver in our position,” Bass said at the press conference on behalf of those who signed the letter.
The deficit reduction bill was passed last week by the Senate. Senator Judd Gregg (R- NH), who voted in favor of the bill, supports seeking energy resources in the refuge.
“Any energy policy should balance the need for energy resources with the need to protect natural resources and the environment,” Gregg said in a press release Thursday. “Given the extraordinarily high prices of gas and oil this fall, and the instability of energy from foreign sources, we have a responsibility to find ways to increase the domestic supply of energy and to stabilize the prices of energy.. While it takes a bit of political courage to offer possible solutions to meet our energy needs, I feel we must continue to take the necessary steps to make our country more energy-independent.”
Bass and his coalition of other moderate Republicans maintain that using the refuge does not offer long-term solutions for the energy shortage.
“It provides absolutely no alternatives to our continuing dependence on oil as a main source of transportation,” Congressman Wayne Gilchrest (R- Md.) said Thursday. “If we can hold the line — and we will hold the line — on this provision of ANWR we will begin to open up a much more urgent dialogue on alternatives to oil.”
Bass and his congressional colleagues are hopeful of success in preventing the passage of the drilling provisions. “It hasn’t looked good for protecting the Arctic wilderness for some time now, and I think the situation looks a lot better,” Bass said.
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