Posted on 10/20/2017 10:33:29 AM PDT by drewh
WASHINGTON – The Senate rejected an amendment Thursday that sought to block a key panel from raising revenue through drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a move that could make it easier for future oil and gas drilling to take place there.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, Wash., the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, offered an budget amendment that would have removed instructions to the panel to raise an additional $1 billion through federal leasing. It failed 48 to 52 on a largely party-line vote, with only Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, W.Va., breaking ranks. Collins voted in favor of Cantwell’s amendment, while Manchin opposed it.
The vote, which came before the Senate approved Republican’s proposed budget, represented a victory for the GOP and a defeat for environmentalists. The Trump administration is quietly moving to spur energy exploration in the refuge for the first time in more than 30 years by considering whether to allow seismic testing there, but only Congress can determine whether oil and gas drilling can take place within its 19.6 million acres.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told her colleagues that they should view the budget instructions “as an opportunity to do something constructive for the country.”
“It’s about jobs, and job creation. It’s about wealth and wealth creation,” she said, adding that drilling in the refuge is “not the only option” for how her panel could find $1 billion in new revenue. “But I will tell you it is the best option, and it’s on the table.”
Opponents of the plan say that such operations could imperil the refuge’s wildlife, which include polar bears as well as caribou and migrating waterfowl. David Yarnold, CEO of the National Audubon Society, said in a recent interview that based on recent lease sales, the federal government would likely get only $9 million in revenue if it auctioned off the right to drill on the refuge’s coastal plain.
“It’s just bad math,” Yarnold said, adding that when lawmakers predict this activity could raise $1 billion, “there’s no reason to believe that that’s going to happen.”
But Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, hailed the move as a sign that his state was inching closer to developing an area that’s been shut off from development for years.
“This resolution is another key step that we’ve recently accomplished in a decades-long fight to allow Alaskans to produce energy in our state – something that Alaskans, Democrats, Republicans, independents, overwhelmingly support,” Sullivan said in a statement. “More American energy production means more good-paying jobs, increased economic growth, and a stronger national security.”
Environmentalists said they would continue to fight any move to drill in the refuge, which has been subject to fights in Congress for years.
“Today’s vote is a wakeup call for all Americans. Americans have fought for decades to protect this last remaining truly wild landscape, and are rallying today because they believe in taking action on climate change and want to defend the rights of the Native Gwich’in people,” said Adam Kolton, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, in a statement. “Every member of Congress who supported this scheme, to hijack the budget process to do the bidding of oil companies, needs to hear loud and clear that we are determined to defend ‘America’s Serengeti.’
Alaska Ping
There is no such thing as government "revenue".
Nevertheless, Drill Baby, Drill!
Sarah Palin was right :)
I have one hanging on my wall, and Clemente was one of my heroes because he was a good man as well as a fantastic baseball player.
I met him and knew people that he helped on a personal basis {as well as his last flight to his death}.
Why? Cuz' 0bama is no longer Prez? If he had wanted to drill there, do you think anyone would have stopped him?
Dems caving to nervous Turtleman
All along the pipeline there was this green space created by the warmth of the pipeline. In the deep winter, all these animals had grass to nibble on through the winter when everything else was iced up.
Yes, my fellow Americans, the pipeline actually saves animals lives.
Fox News made me angry for years over this. Whenever there was a news item about this the backdrop video would be of a large caribou running through a lush tundra. Especially when Sheepturd Smith was doing the report. Turns out the whole area is the stereotypical Seward’s Folly, an icy desolate place.
I made that up, but I could see her saying it
Let me say this, nobody is going to drill, there will be lawsuits that will drag out until a democrat is back in office, with that said I would like to see a test well to see if anything is really there to start with.
Q - What’s the difference between a sow with a cowboy hat,
and Frederica Wilson?
A - The sow smells better!
All of the media did this. Most of the time they showed photos of the Brooks Range, which is wildly beautiful, but hundred of miles away and protected from any development. I once saw an ANWR story on the front page of the Slimes that featured a photo of Mt. McKinley!
You are correct, ANWR is featureless tundra and almost entirely empty. The drilling would be on a tiny percentage of the land and would not affect what little wildlife lives there.
Manchin voted for us, Collins against us.
This is the kind of story that proves libtards don’t care about facts, don’t care about energy, and don’t care to know anything when they think they have a good “narrative.”
The coastal plain of ANWR (where any drilling would be) is desolate, nearly devoid of plant and animal life, virtually never visited by any humans.... all in all, one of the most barren and unappealing places on earth. Any drilling would be in tiny tiny patches that could hardly be noticed by all the animals and humans that aren’t even there to notice. The liberals greatly expanded ANWR from the amount of land that was in the original plan, just as they often vastly over-promote “wilderness” and “national monuments” and such. Many of us are supportive of a core list of National Parks and wilderness protected areas, but the libtard econuts have greatly over-expanded this list and then try to make it all sacred. They try to pretend that the coastal plain of ANWR is as precious as Yosemite or Yellowstone. It’s not. That is a great big thumping LEFTIST LIE.
Local caribou herds are completely for it.
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