Posted on 05/26/2006 11:48:08 AM PDT by thackney
WASHINGTON - In what has become almost an annual ritual, the House approved legislation Thursday that would allow energy firms to search for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
But as with 11 previous attempts since 1995 to allow drilling in the refuge, it is unlikely that the politically charged legislation will reach the president's desk.
The measure would end a 26-year moratorium on drilling in the Alaska refuge, thought to be the largest untapped oil deposit left onshore in the United States. House Republican leaders brought the issue to the floor in response to rising gas prices that they worry will cause a voter backlash.
But the proposal has virtually no chance of getting the 60 votes in the Senate needed to overcome a filibuster. Previous efforts have fallen a couple of votes shy.
"The Senate certainly respects the House effort to increase production with gasoline blowing past $3 a gallon at the pump," noted Marnie Funk, a spokeswoman for Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M. "We urgently need to produce more of our own energy.
"But this bill is dead on arrival in the Senate," Funk said.
Drilling advocates acknowledged the difficulty the bill will face in the Senate but remained "cautiously optimistic," said Brian Kennedy, spokesman for House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif. "The country only needs three or four obstructionists in (the Senate) to step aside," Kennedy said. "Hopefully we'll get there."
The House voted 225-201 for the bill. Houston Republicans voted unanimously for the legislation, with Democratic Reps. Gene Green and Al Green breaking with most of their party to support drilling.
The bill would allow drilling on 2,000 acres that are believed to hold more than 10 billion recoverable barrels of crude. Drilling advocates say ANWR would reduce America's dependence on foreign producers, which now supply 60 percent of the nation's oil. Pumping more domestic oil would also ease prices at the pump, proponents say.
"In my hometown of Arlington, Texas, right now there are drilling rigs within 300 feet of homes," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "You're telling me in Alaska we can't drill a couple hundred wells?"
Lawmakers opposed to drilling in the refuge have long argued that drilling there would pose environmental risks and destroy a habitat for wildlife.
Instead of spending time and money searching for oil, they say, the country should be fostering alternative energy.
TSS.
(the Senate sucks)
It hard to get those Senators to listen to me with out a duffle bag full of money in my hand.
Mulkowski and Stevens just voted FOR the Senate immigrant fiasco bill.. Wonder if they have "a DEAL"(with democrats) to pass the ANWR thing in the Senate ?.. If it(ANWR) don't pass the Senate.. they both are RINOs.. malicicious RINOS.. and will never get another vote form ME...
I cut off the last paragraph.
....
"Rather than debating how we could increase the fuel efficiency standards ... we are debating about a bill that won't produce the first barrel of oil for 10 years," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.
....
Some one should remind him that if Bill Clinton had not vetoed the bill in 1995, the oil would be flowing today. 10 years from now let us congratulate ourselves in looking to the future instead once again, wishing we had done right in the past.
If it is not a big deal then why are you trying to block it?
I think the House should refuse to take any action on the House/Senate imigration conference until the Senate agrees to an up-or-down vote on ANWR drilling.
The way I heard it explained if the House never goes to comittee for resolution with the Senate version NOTHING will happen and the bill will die.
We should be drilling in ANWR "yesterday". Our elected morons are keeping us more dependent on foreign oil than we need to be. It's like having natural spring water in your backyard, but instead of using it you go buy bottled water for $8.00 a gallon. The Senators who vote against this should be replaced.
After the fall elections the odds will not improve for oil leasing in ANWR. They better get it done now if they want to do it.
Because some things take a while. That's called "longterm." I realize you Dems dont think that way, but grownups do.
With that kind of logic, we should say "why educate our youth? They won't be productive members of society for like, 15 years!"
Nope it will get voted down again.
You and a lot of others here don't seem to get it! You talk about "our oil" and "foreign oil". All the oil in the world is on the global market, to be sold to the highest bidder. "Our" oil companies have no loyalty to this country, only to themselves and their stockholders. They are global companies. They will most likely sell any ANWAR oil to Japan, because its closer, and reduces transportation costs to them. It doesn't make any difference to them where the oil comes from, (except for costs of transportation) and who they sell it to. You're living in a global economy, and "nationalism" is a dirty word to these globalists. If they were concerned about the American people, and lower prices, they could be selling oil from "old" oil wells to us for a cheaper price, because it costs them a lot less to extract that old oil, and all the attending costs have long been paid. But they sell it by the world price, determined by speculators in the futures market. We don't like it, but we can't do anything about it. In addition they're getting free protection from our Navy, who are guarding the worlds oil lanes!
Oil coming from Alaska and other domestic sources does not line the pockets of states that support terrorism, or have other agenda hostile to U.S. interests. We are too dependent on Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, et. al. Our dependency on foreign oil is used as a political an economic weapon. Get it? As for our oil companies, and related service companies, I want them to make piles of money. Get it? Your view of oil companies is simplistic.
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