Senate Votes to Allow Drilling in Arctic Reserve

NY Times ^ | March 16, 2005 | DAVID STOUT

[Don Corleone]

Those seven were John S. McCain of Arizona, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, both of Maine.

RINO'S ALL! VOTE 'em OUT!

[lormand]

"Those seven were John S. McCain of Arizona, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, both of Maine."

...wishing for a policy which states "if your state does not support independent energy exploration, then your state gets NO external energy sources".

[yellowdoghunter]

Anybody have any idea how long before they put forth the bill to actually open the ANWAR for drilling? What is the next step?

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Actually, drilling that area will make it off-limits to any other development, thereby protecting it.

Nothing has been lost from the Alaska pipieline coming out of Prudhoe and Barrow. Only gained. These people who oppose it are

[Disambiguator]

Your post left me hanging.

[neverdem]

What is the next step?

"For drilling to take place, the Senate will later have to pass a measure explicitly authorizing the opening of the wildlife refuge to drilling, something that until now has been prohibited. Then the House of Representatives would have to explicitly authorize drilling as well."

The authorization could be filibustered.

[martin_fierro]

Opponents, who include most Democrats and some Republican moderates

In NYT parlance, a RINO is "moderate," but a moderate Liberal is "Conservative."

[Fudd Fan]

Oh my, and I had such high hopes for Coleman. I am so disillusioned.

[doodad]

opening of the wildlife refuge to drilling, something that until now has been prohibited

I heard that the area in question was always designated for reserves. Wish I knew the truth. But, as a geologist, DRILL. It won't hurt even if there were a spill. I love the arrogance of enviros who think that our very existence is a blight on the planet. FEH!

[Wingy]

The authorization could be filibustered.

No, unless the dims want to filibuster the budget. Even they are not THAT dumb.

[neverdem]

No, unless the dims want to filibuster the budget.

IIRC, they can't filibuster budget bills. That's why this was added to the budget bill. The way that the story is written, I have the impression that the vote for authorization will come later.

[Blue Screen of Death]

The 51-to-49 vote was in favor of a budget resolution that assumes revenues of some $5 billion from drilling fees over the next decade, with the federal government and the state of Alaska to split the money.

Basically a $5 billion tax before they add the local/state/federal per gallon tax after production. Next time anyone gets upset about the price of gas, don't point fingers at Exxon or Chevron, look at government greed.

[Cicero]

I'm not defending the seven RINOs. But ordinarily RINOs can make a deal with the majority leader to vote against a bill (and please their constituents) just as long as the bill passes. Their votes are only needed at critical moments.

Voting down a bill is another matter, of course. Unfortunately, only the senate leadership knows whether a particular RINO was authorized to vote against a bill.

While it's annoying, it makes a certain sense. You can give a RINO some lattitude as long as they vote the right way on critical issues. Of course that's talking about states where only RINOs can get elected.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

It's a fill-in-the-blank sentence.

[YOUGOTIT]

You are correct the area was, as I recall, set aside for exploration of oil when the reserve was voted in.

[Cicero]

It's not an extra tax. It's an assumption that existing taxes will add up to $5 billion by the time the reserves are used up. They put that in as an excuse for including it in the budget bill, where it couldn't be filibustered.

[YOUGOTIT]

Norm Coleman of Minnesota: After donating several hundred dollars to his election, I wrote him a letter asking fro his support for the Republican agenda. He wrote back ans told me he did not answer to people who were not from his state and to talk to my own Senators. Needless to say he will never again get one dollar from me. We need someone to run against him in the primary.

[Blue Screen of Death]

OK, thanks for the correction. It makes me feel much better that we will only be giving the government a mere 5 billion.