Posted on 11/27/2001 9:15:06 AM PST by finnman69
Energy Bill Saved For Next Year
By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate action on energy legislation, and a likely confrontation over whether to allow oil drilling in an Arctic wildlife refuge, is being put off until early next year.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Tuesday he is committed to bringing an energy bill up for floor debate within the first weeks after Congress returns in January.
Daschle has said that other pressing matters such as economic recovery, national security in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and remaining government spending bills, leave no time to deal with energy this year.
It is ``not only my expectation, but my commitment that we will take the bill up during that first work period'' next year, meaning before the Senate's recess for Presidents' Day in mid-February.
Congress is expected to recess in mid-December and return in January.
Senate Republicans have accused Daschle of blocking consideration of energy legislation to avoid a heated debate over development of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. A number of Democrats have vowed to filibuster any attempt to open the refuge to oil companies, which has been a key element of President Bush's domestic energy development strategy.
``It's a great concern to me and a number of senators that we are not going to be able to consider energy policy for our country before the end of the year, especially in view of the fact that we see now continuing uncertainty about what is going to be done by OPEC countries,'' said GOP leader Trent Lott of Mississippi.
Republicans have argued that legislation is needed to spur domestic energy development and ease U.S. reliance on oil imports including those from the Persian Gulf. Democrats have maintained that most of the provisions in an energy bill will be aimed at long-term measures and should not be rushed through in the final weeks of the session.
Amid talk of an energy crisis, the House last summer passed a fairly broad energy bill. But its plans to follow with a series of measures aimed specifically at the electricity industry, a key part of a comprehensive energy blueprint, were sidetracked by the events of Sept. 11.
Since then, energy prices across the board from oil and natural gas to gasoline and electric power have declined dramatically with plenty of supplies, easing the crisis atmosphere that prevailed less than a year ago.
Hopefully, one day we find out how much money the Opecker nations have donated to the enviral organizations since 1973. Those donations then help demonicRat senators, congressits and governors to be elected to be enviral hand puppets. Besides donations to their selected demonicRat candidates, these envirals then tell their cult members who to vote for!
Since 1973, these enviral organizations and their political hacks like Da$$hole have worked 24/7 to make us more dependent on Opecker oil. This blatant stunt by Da$$hole is just the latest Anti American legal stunt to keep us dependent on Opecker oil!
Judas Da$$hole obviously gets more than a simple 40 pieces of silver to betray Americans on a daily basis!
Can opening the ANWR for drilling be accomplish by an EO? Can an EO alter statute law?
I am so sick of their nonsense...
I notice they haven't mentioned putting Bush's judicial nominees on the front-burner either, not even for January... 
I sure hope everyone's taking notes on this to pull out for next year's elections, because this is really making the Democratic party look bad...
-penny
Naw, it is already here.
I wonder if supplies will still be high, and prices low, in January? Bringing this up at the coldest time of the year could affect the public perception of the issue (I can hope at least).
understatement of the day! however, i am not sure that democrats see it that way; i can only hope that the independents are paying attention.
In 1998 the USGS did a study that concluded that there are between 5.7 billion to 16 Billion barrels of recoverable Oil in the "1002" Area of ANWR.
An exploration rig seen damaging the tundra and disturbing the abundent wildlife on the costal plane of ANWR
Beautiful Spring day in "Americas Serengetti"
That is a LOT of oil!
and it dosent even take into consideration the nearly 200 TRILLION cubic feet of natural gas there (over 150 years supply at the current rate of use in the U.S.)
A little perspective on the size of ANWR development:
Only 2,000 acres out of 19.5 MILLION are even under consideration for drilling. And those 19.5 million acres are but a FRACTION of the total land mass of Alaska. Also, contrary to dire predictions of the devasting impact on wildlife that would occur when we ran the pipeline in Prudhoe bay, the caribou herd there have actually grown to record numbers.
For REAL information on ANWR, let's use science, not the knee-jerk, anti-reason "precautionary principle": click here for info on ANWR and here for an excellent article by Linda Chavez about how Alaskans themselves view it. The Heritage Foundation also has an article which simply and plainly states the case for drilling here. Also read The National Center for Public Policy Research Press Release entitled "Bush Is Right: Opening ANWR To Oil Exploration Would Help Consumers Without Hurting Environment"
I know it's her. She's a master at it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.