Six Republican Senators Turn Against Bush on ANWR

Reuters ^ | 1/31/03

[areafiftyone]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration's plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling suffered a major blow on Friday, as six Republican senators said they opposed inserting language to give oil companies access to the refuge into a must-pass budget bill.

ANWR, which is home to polar bears, caribou and other wildlife, sprawls across 19 million acres of Alaska's northeast corner.

The Republican-led House of Representatives passed energy legislation last year that would have opened ANWR to drilling.

The White House contends that the refuge's potential 16 billion barrels of crude must be tapped to help reduce U.S. dependence on oil imports from unfriendly countries like Iraq.

Drilling is opposed by many Democrats and environmental groups, who say the administration should cut oil imports by boosting the mileage standards of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles.

Six of the Senate's 51 Republicans, including former presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona, on Friday announced they would not go along with a plan to tack ANWR drilling language onto a massive spending bill this spring that would enact the new 2004 budget for the federal government.

The senators said drilling in the Alaskan refuge is an important policy issue that should be openly debated, not slipped into an unrelated bill.

"Because the opening of the Arctic refuge to drilling raises a host of policy concerns, including serious environmental ramifications, we do not believe this issue should be injected in the budget process," the lawmakers said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles.

The letter is the latest twist in a two-year legislative battle over drilling in the Alaskan refuge.

The Democratic-led Senate last year soundly defeated efforts to open the refuge, when drilling supporters fell short of the 60 votes needed to end debate on the controversial proposal and allow a final vote on the measure.

To get around a filibuster this time around, supporters of opening the refuge want to attach drilling language to must-pass legislation to fund the 2004 budget for the federal government. They argue that such language is appropriate for budget legislation because of the fees the government would collect from leasing tracts in the refuge to oil companies.

Under Senate rules, budget legislation cannot be filibustered and only 50 votes would be needed to approve the bill and an attached ANWR drilling provision.

In addition to McCain, the letter was signed by Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois and Mike DeWine of Ohio.

In his State of the Union speech to Congress earlier this week, President Bush urged lawmakers to pass legislation enacting his national energy plan, which includes drilling in the refuge.

Two Democratic presidential hopefuls, Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, oppose ANWR drilling and have promised to filibuster any energy bill that would open the refuge.

[paguch]

I have talked to the DeWine people about this in the past. They had absolute no credible knowledge on this subject. Tried to fool mr. Turns out DeWine is supporting his son an enviro-waco.
There must be a soft belly in Ohio politics. Both DeWine and Voinovich are going off the reservation with Lincoln Chafee and McCain.

[hobbes1]

In addition to McCain, the letter was signed by Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois and Mike DeWine of Ohio.

Wouldn't it have been simpler to say that "the letter was signed by the usual suspects"

[stalin]

So , you want to give the senate and the house to the Democrats ? That is the choice here. If we got rid of Republicans that think for themselves and aren't party lap dogs Democrats would be in control have all three branches.

[hobbes1]

Actually, I would prefer to produce as little American fossil fuel as possible, until the rest of the World begins to run dry.

[1Old Pro]

Hopefully six Dems will support it.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

This move is irrelevant for now because the conference committee, which reconciles differences between the House and Senate, will insert the provision in the final version. Not one of the six Rino’s will be on the conference committee and there will be 51 votes for the final bill.

[CPT Clay]

I'm suprised that Spectre and Coleman didn't sign the letter.

[stalin]

If the sheeple got their way at least the borders would be secured. I wonder what fox has on Bush to get him to put Mexico's interests ahead of America'even though the polls show the vast majority against his Mexico first policy ?

[hobbes1]

if we got rid of Republicans that think for themselves and aren't party lap dogs Democrats would be in control have all three branches.

Why do you say that?

That's all the dems have now...

[CyberAnt]

"ANWR, which is home to polar bears, caribou and other wildlife"

This is not accurate. There are no polar bears or caribou in this area - because there is nothing for them to EAT!!

[stalin]

exactly !!!!

[Mo1]

So , you want to give the senate and the house to the Democrats ?

No I would like to see them replaced with better republicans

[Mo1]

Me too

[DoughtyOne]

John McCain? Oh I can't believe this... (NOT!)

Arizona, can't you get rid of this pri-k?

[stalin]

not possible. They would just be replaced by democrates. It's better to have them on our side even if they vote against party politics half of the time.

[Willie Green]

How much you wanna make a bet that is obstructed too by the Democreeps.

When Dubya makes a big hullaballoo about a phoney panacea like hydrogen cars, why should he expect RINO senators to take the ANWR proposal seriously?

It's the same old political crap that has led to an ineffective Energy Policy for over 30 years.

U.S. Petroleum & Crude Oil Overview
(thousand barrels per day)

	1960	1965	1970	1975	1980	1985	1990	1995	2000
U.S. Crude Oil Production	7,035	7,804	9,637	8,375	8,597	8,971	7,355	6,560	5,834
U.S. Petroleum Imports	1,815	2,468	3,419	6,056	6,909	5,067	8,018	8,835	11,093
Total	8,850	10,272	13,056	14,431	15,506	14,038	15,373	15,395	16,927
Imports as % of Total	20.5	24.0	26.2	42.0	44.6	36.1	52.2	57.4	65.5

[CollegeRepublican]

According to my calculations, if they could pump it "fast enough" the oil could supply the USA for about 814.25 days or about 27 months. 16 billion barrels of oil. Current daily usage of the USA, 19.65 billion barrels per day. This data is taken from the Transportation Energy Data Book, Edition 22, USDOE.

However, I have a feeling that once the oil companies get up there they might find more oil than they think is there. The Prudhoe Bay well has already produced more oil than they initially though was present.

[Kip Lange]

Republicans that think for themselves and aren't party lap dogs

Uh, these particular RINOs are more predictable and more sheep-like than they are "free-thinkers". There's honest debate among the party, but when I see *these* monkeys break off and do something, I *know* what's up, and free thought has NOTHING to do with it. ;-)

--CWL