Senate Republicans Tie ANWR Oil Drilling to Budget Bill

By mid-May, the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will approve legislation to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, according to Committee Chairman Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM).

Domenici’s pledge followed narrow Senate passage last Thursday (March 16) of a $2.8 trillion budget bill—in a vote of 51 to 49—that includes raising $6 billion over 10 years by allowing oil companies to drill in ANWR. The revenue, derived from leasing fees charged to the oil companies, would be divided between the federal government and the state of Alaska.



The budget bill instructs the Senate's energy committee to draft legislation that would open ANWR to drilling and pave the way for raise the $6 billion. Domenici says he will send the necessary legislation to the Senate Budget Committee by mid-May.

This is the latest of several attempts by President Bush and his congressional allies to allow oil drilling in ANWR. Bush has made opening ANWR to oil exploration a key part of his energy policy, claiming that the wildlife refuge would produce as much as 16 billion barrels of crude oil and help to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil.

Senate Republican leaders added the ANWR language to the budget bill, because under Senate rules budget legislation is exempt from filibusters.

Last fall, Senate Republicans made a similar attempt to mandate oil drilling in ANWR by using the budget process—first in an unsuccessful bid to include ANWR oil exploration in the House budget and then in an effort to make the issue part of the 2006 Defense Department spending bill in the Senate. The Senate effort failed after U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) led a floor battle to block the amendment.

Leading Senate Democrats and environmental groups were quick to oppose the move to make opening ANWR to oil drilling a budget provision. They argue that opening ANWR to drilling would only perpetuate America’s “addiction to oil,” which the president highlighted in his State of the Union address, while destroying one of the last wild places on Earth. Many opponents also criticized Senate Republicans for using the budget bill to circumvent normal legislative procedure.

The Sierra Club released a statement that said in part: “In a move to limit debate and opposition, drilling-obsessed politicians like Senator [Ted] Stevens (R-AK) and Pete Domenici (R-NM)—aided by Budget Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH)—are trying to sidestep the normal Senate rules by making this an ‘Arctic only’ budget bill: the only instruction Sen. Gregg sent was to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.”

"By using the budget bill primarily as a vehicle for Arctic Refuge drilling, the Senate has dropped any pretense of working to balance the budget or reduce the deficit," said Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope. "The Senate is treating the budget process as a joke and a special interest gravy boat."

Estimates made by the U.S. Interior Department are more conservative than the claims of the White House. The Interior Department estimates ANWR could hold somewhere between 5.7 billion and 16 billion barrels of oil that could be recovered. Estimates by other sources place the amount of recoverable oil even lower. If ANWR were opened to drilling, the U.S. Energy Department estimates it would take about eight years to reach full production of 800,000 to 1 million barrels per day.