House Endorses Drilling in Alaska Refuge

AP via Yahoo News ^ | 4-10-03 | H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer

[paul in cape]

WASHINGTON - The House on Thursday night endorsed oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge, setting up a likely confrontation with the Senate as Congress struggles to produce a comprehensive energy policy.

An attempt to strip a House energy bill of a provision that would allow development of the refuge's oil was rejected 228-197. Drilling opponents argued more oil could be saved with higher auto fuel economy requirements than the refuge could produce.

Earlier, the House turned back a proposal to require a 5 percent reduction in fuel used by motor vehicles, including SUVs and pickup trucks, within seven years. Opponents to the measure said it would force automakers to make small cars.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., sponsor of the anti-drilling amendment, criticized "going to a pristine area in the Arctic and drilling" and then putting the oil "into SUVs that get 10 to 13 miles a gallon." If lawmakers are unwilling to improve auto fuel economy "we have no right to jeopardize a pristine wilderness that should be preserved for the next generation," he said.

But Rep. Don Young (news, bio, voting record), R-Alaska, said those who argue against developing the refuge's oil don't have the facts. Most of them, he complained, haven't visited the area on Alaska's North Slope, just east of the oil-rich Prudhoe Bay fields.

With the pro-drilling vote, the House put itself into conflict with the Senate, which last month rejected drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by a vote of 52-48. Even pro-drilling Senate Republicans have indicated they have little stomach to take on the issue again in an energy bill that Democrats have vowed to filibuster over the drilling issue.

The Senate is expected to take up its energy bill next month.

There are plenty of refuges, including some in Louisiana, where wildlife and oil development go hand in hand, and the Alaska refuge should be no different, argued Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., the energy bill's floor manager.

In an attempt to gain support from GOP moderates, the House added restrictions Thursday that would limit the total area for oil development in ANWR to 2,000 acres. Critics said the limits were misleading because the acres could be spread, like a spider web, across the entire 1.5 million-acre coastal plain that holds the oil. Environmentalists strongly believe the area should be protected because of its caribou, polar bears, migrating birds and other wildlife.

[paul in cape]

Complete Story HERE

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[jd777]

Great news.

[kellynla]

I haven't been following this story but didn't the House already pass a bill that the Senate voted against just recently concerning drilling in AK?

[baseballmom]

I have read in several articles that the people of Alaska actually WANT to drill there - it would good for them economically.

Can't the people of Alaska vote on this themselves? Why is Congress allowed to tell a state what it may or may not do?

[Trailer Trash]

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Trailer Trash]

House passed a bill during the last congress. The senate was dem then. It did not pass.

The senate had a bill with ANWR as a rider this time and it didn't pass.

Keep in mind that Bush told us a couple of weeks ago, after the senate didn't pass it, that he intends to back drilling in the frozen ANWR plain.
Story here
White House vows to continue fight to open ANWR to drilling 3-30-2003 http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~1282944,00.html

I think the house got the message.

[pepperdog]

"Can't the people of Alaska vote on this themselves? Why is Congress allowed to tell a state what it may or may not do?"

AMEN!!I think the people of Alaska are quite capable of determining how they want to run their state. Betcha the "feds" claim title to this land.

[Trailer Trash]

"I have read in several articles that the people of Alaska actually WANT to drill there"

That is very true.

It's up to the congress because it is federal land.

It's a cash cow fundraising football for the Sierra Club because it's too remote for anyone to visit and see how desolate it really is.

see for yourself

Do these caribou look stressed??

[Dengar01]

I got in a debate with a liberal who was against drilling. She said it would kill the caribou. I asked her if she'd ever been to Alaska, she said no. I told her I have been to Alaska and there are caribou all over the place (but liberals don't understand logic!).