ANWR PART II, READ IT AND WEEP

If you haven’t read this entry, please start with it. This second part of the ANWR posting deals with the administration’s renewed efforts to get into the Refuge and drill for oil there. Because this was defeated in Congress in July they are resorting to a sneaky backdoor method to get what they want in the White House, as a boon to the oil industry, a major source of financial contributions to the party and the president’s campaign.

From PlanetArk, the Reuters environmental news site, this is the story:

Senate Tries New Strategy to Win Alaska Drilling

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's aim to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling was included in a draft Senate budget resolution on Wednesday, improving its chances of passage after repeated filibusters, a senior Republican senator said.

The White House and Republican leaders want to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a vast pristine area on Alaska's north coast, to boost domestic supplies of oil.

Moderate Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have blocked ANWR legislation for years, citing concerns about the impact of drilling on wildlife such as caribou, polar bears and migratory birds.

But this year, by attaching legislative language to a broad federal budget measure, Senate Republican leaders believe they can push through ANWR drilling. Under Senate rules, budget bills cannot be filibustered or talked to death.

Pete Domenici of New Mexico, the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, said the ANWR drilling measure was included in the Senate Budget Committee's draft budget bill released on Wednesday.

"All we're going to do in this budget resolution is do it the old fashioned way," Domenici said. "If you want to win, you get 51 votes."

Ending a Senate filibuster on other bills requires 60 votes.

However, Sen. Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, said he would offer an amendment to strip the language from the budget bill. Something as controversial as ANWR drilling should not be included in a broad bill to fund the entirefederal government in fiscal 2006, he and other critics said.

"It's a back door way to try and get drilling in the Arctic wilderness," Feingold said.

In a speech in Ohio, President George W. Bush urged Congress to open 2,000 acres of the refuge to oil exploration. "Developing a small section of ANWR would not only create thousands of new jobs, but it would eventually reduce our dependence on foreign oil by up to a million barrels of oil a day," Bush said. "Congress needs to look at the science and look at the facts and send me a bill that includes exploration in ANWR for the sake of our country."

The US government has estimated that 10 billion to 16 billion barrels of crude oil could be pumped from the refuge. "That's the same amount of new oil we could get from 41 states combined," Bush said.

The Senate Budget Committee's draft budget bill estimated some $2.5 billion would be collected in fees from energy companies that would pay the government to lease ANWR tracts to hunt for oil.

That is based on the assumption that the federal government can lease at least 400,000 acres in the refuge, and collect fees of $4,000 to $6,000 an acre from energy firms. Some Democrats have questioned those assumptions, noting that a series of northern Alaskan lease sales brought in an average of less than $40 per acre in the past four years.

While the Senate moved forward with the administration's oil drilling plan, the House Budget Committee's draft bill for fiscal 2006 did not include a provision for ANWR drilling. "We're sort of agnostic on that particular policy," said a House Budget Committee aide.

However, other lawmakers on the House panel could try to amend the budget bill to add the drilling language. The full House has overwhelmingly approved opening the wildlife refuge to oil companies in the past two years.

Re Domenici’s interest in using this rat’s ass method of passing an unpopular policy, here he is in a previous life making his views known on the use of exactly the same tactics:

"Years ago, the same Senator Domenici spoke out against using the budget as a Trojan horse to force through policy proposals that fail to win support on their own merits. It’s a shame that Senator Domenici has turned his back on the Senate’s tradition of full and fair debate " (article from Environmental News Service, Senate Budget Committee Advances Arctic Drilling)

The NRDC sent out an alert to its members, which included an article from The Washington Post, from which I include this snippet:

The debate is over the environmental impact and benefits of drilling in a small portion of the 19 million-acre refuge. Drilling would occur within about 1.5 million acres of the coastal plain. Bush said yesterday that all of the refuge's oil could be reached by drilling on 2,000 acres. Opponents disputed that and said drilling would mar the environment and provide little benefit.

Government models suggest that if opened, the coastal plain of the refuge could produce nearly 10 million barrels of oil a day in 2025. The reduction in imports would be modest, according to data from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration. With oil from the refuge, the agency's models indicate the United States would import oil to meet 65 percent of its needs in 2025 vs. 68 percent without it.

So, in twenty years we’d see a difference of 3% in imported oil. Well, that’s certainly worth opening up the only remaining unspoiled wilderness on this continent to oil drilling, wouldn’t you say?

And here’s the Wilderness Society’s take on all this, in case you haven't been listening thus far:

Sneak Attack Threatens Arctic Refuge And Our Democratic Process
Wilderness Society Shines a Spotlight on Stealth Budget Maneuver

Washington , DC – The pristine natural beauty and unique wildlife of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are facing a renewed attack from oil industry allies in Congress. But this time, it's a sneak attack. Despite the fact that the vast majority of Americans oppose drilling for oil in the Arctic Refuge, some members of the House and Senate are quietly pulling out all the stops to try to pass a highly controversial drilling proposal. They would do so by attaching the drilling measure to the upcoming budget resolution, a backdoor maneuver designed to bypass both popular sentiment and a lack of support for the measure in Congress.

.......

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is home to over 250 unique animal species, including polar bears, grizzlies, musk oxen, wolves, and millions of migratory birds. The US Fish and Wildlife Service called the refuge’s 1.5 million-acre Coastal Plain – where oil drilling is proposed – the "biological heart" of the refuge. To the Gwich’in Indians of Alaska, who rely heavily on the refuge’s caribou herd for their food and culture, the refuge is known as the "sacred place where life began."

"There are some places that are just too important and too wild to sacrifice to oil drilling," said Jim Waltman, Wildlife Refuge Program Director for The Wilderness Society. "There are safer and smarter ways to address this problem, starting with making our vehicles more efficient and investing in renewable sources like wind and solar."

It’s interesting to go to the ANWR’s own webpage and read some of the issues at stake in this controversy. It has been a controversy since it first became known that oil lay beneath the Coastal Tundra Plain, but every effort to drill for that oil has up until now been defeated.

Potential Impacts of Proposed Oil and Gas Development on the Arctic Refuge's Coastal Plain: Historical Overview and Issues of Concern

Topics on this page:

History of the Arctic Refuge as it relates to Oil in Alaska
How much Oil is in the Arctic Refuge?
The Unique Conservation Values of the Arctic Refuge
Potential Impacts of Oil and Gas Development on Refuge Resources
List of Reports

Well, there you have it. This is all slated for action next Wednesday. We still have time to make our voices heard. The NRDC has this page where you can make your shout, with a simple clicking on a link. The ANWR is one of the NRDC’s BioGems, they are anxious to see it remain as such for future generations.

One more link for taking action, which I "borrowed" from Robin's wonderful posting on this same issue:

Arctic Hotline for Capitol Hill: 1-888-894-5325 or go to http://capwiz.com/awc/dbq/officials/ and click on your state to get the direct number for your Senator.  You can call the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121

·       Ask your Senator to vote “Yes” on the Cantwell amendment to keep drilling in the Arctic Refuge out of the budget.