[IPSM] ANWR clears Senate hurdle

[Macdonald Stainsby]

ANWR clears Senate hurdle

BUDGET BILL: Toned-down debate on refuge drilling won't last for long.

By LIZ RUSKIN
Anchorage Daily News

Published: March 17, 2006
Last Modified: March 17, 2006 at 03:02 AM

WASHINGTON -- The Senate narrowly passed a budget bill Thursday that 
could lead to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but there 
are more hurdles ahead and an end to the decades-old controversy is far 
from certain.

"We recognize that this is just the first step, but you've got to get 
through the first step so you can move it down the road," said Sen. Lisa 
Murkowski, R-Alaska.

The vote Thursday evening was 51-49. It came without the emotional 
debate and poster-sized wildlife photos that have come to characterize 
the fight over the coastal plain in Alaska's far northeast.

An expected Democratic amendment to strip ANWR from the bill never 
materialized, and ANWR got hardly a mention on the Senate floor. It 
wasn't for lack of interest. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who led the 
anti-drilling battle last year, decided to try another tactic this time.

"What it came down to was an overall assessment today that if we offered 
the amendment, we would have lost again, and that we should try to get 
the overall bill killed," Cantwell's spokeswoman, Charla Neuman, said.

It didn't work. Murkowski said two amendments helped win the bill's 
passage. One provides $10 billion for Gulf Coast restoration. That was 
especially important to Louisiana's senators, and Sen. Mary Landrieu, 
D-La., crossed party lines to vote for the budget. Another provides $3.3 
billion for low-income heating assistance. That seemed to satisfy Sen. 
Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who usually votes against ANWR drilling but 
voted yes Thursday.

What to do with the Arctic refuge is one of the nation's highest profile 
environmental battles. Americans don't usually see it as a government 
budget battle. But drilling advocates, as they did last year, are trying 
to pass ANWR as a budget item because budget bills can't be 
filibustered. As Thursday's vote proved, they had just enough votes to 
pass the bill, but not the 60 it would take to break a filibuster.

The budget resolution doesn't actually discuss the refuge. It directs 
the Senate Energy Committee to change whatever resource-related laws 
must be changed to raise $3 billion, and everyone knows that's 
congressional code for ANWR revenues. Congress has to pass another bill, 
called the budget reconciliation bill, to actually open the refuge.

Last year, the Senate passed ANWR in its budget bill, but in the final 
days of the 2005 session, the House choked on it. House Democrats were 
united against the bill, largely because of its cuts to student loans 
and programs for the poor. A group of moderate Republicans refused to 
let it pass unless ANWR was removed.

The same thing could happen this year. Then again, maybe not.

Two dozen House Republicans have asked their leaders to keep ANWR out of 
the budget. But this year the budget bill is not going to have the big 
cuts to entitlement programs that were so unpopular with the Democrats. 
About 30 House Democrats favor Arctic drilling, and some of them might 
be persuaded to vote for a Republican budget that includes ANWR.

On the other hand, it's an election year, and lawmakers tend not to take 
controversial stands in an election year.

Cindy Shogan, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said 
she was disappointed with Thursday's vote, and dismayed to see the same 
attempt on ANWR, year after year. There are so many other energy issues 
to work on, she said.

"The Alaska senators are obsessed. They're obsessed with drilling in the 
refuge. It's kind of sad," she said. "But we'll fight them again, and 
we'll win again."

Murkowski suggested a way to end the annual ANWR debate: Pass it.

"Yes, I think people are getting ANWR fatigue," she told reporters 
Thursday night. "Those of us in Alaska are saying, 'Enough already. 
Can't you guys make this happen?' "

Contact reporter Liz Ruskin at lruskin at adn.com.
-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
    --Bertholt Brecht.