Bush Promotes Energy Bill as Security Issue
"Even if you drill in Alaska," Mr. Clapp said, "the Department of Energy projects a 25 percent to 30 percent
increase in U.S. oil imports from the Middle East and the Caspian Sea over the next 20 years. His energy
policy would make us more dependent on the countries that are likely to be the most unstable as a result of
the military action in Afghanistan."
October 12, 2001
From The New York Times
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 — President Bush
urged the Senate today to pass an energy
bill that would allow drilling for oil in an Alaskan
wildlife refuge, casting the issue as a matter of
national security.
The Bush administration has maintained that drilling
in Alaska would help the nation reduce its reliance
on foreign oil, and Republicans in Congress have
supported him. Democrats have opposed drilling as
a sop to the oil industry and the Teamsters, who see
it as a jobs program, at the expense of the
environment.
Though the Democrats control the Senate, they are worried that they do not have the votes to prevent the
drilling, and they suspended action yesterday on the energy bill. Mr. Bush's comments today, as the nation
continued to bomb Afghanistan, were a clear effort to revive it.
"I urge the Senate to listen to the will of the senators and move a bill," the president told reporters after a
cabinet meeting in the White House. "The less dependent we are on foreign sources of crude oil, the more
secure we are at home."
Congress has been at pains to show its support for the president since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but the
energy bill is a reminder of the deep partisan divisions below the surface.
Senator Jeff Bingaman, the New Mexico Democrat who is chairman of the
Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said on Tuesday night that the
Democrats were suspending discussion of the bill because they wanted to "avoid quarrelsome, divisive votes
in committee." Mr. Bingaman also said that energy matters were beginning to spill over into other committees
and that he was trying to prevent a jurisdictional dispute.
Senator Frank H. Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said on Wednesday that Democrats did not want to
bring up the bill because they knew they would lose and were trying to deprive Mr. Bush of a victory.
Two Democrats on the committee — Senators Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Daniel K. Akaka of
Hawaii — have signaled their support for drilling, and drilling opponents acknowledged that a vote now could
be risky. Ms. Landrieu, who is up for re-election next year, is from an oil- producing state. Mr. Akaka has
aligned himself with native tribes in Alaska who support the drilling as a boost to their economy.
Mr. Bingaman's move essentially gives Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the majority leader, the power
to bypass committees and shape the bill on his own. Democratic advisers said he was working to produce an
energy bill before Congress adjourns later this month or early next but that it would almost certainly not
authorize drilling in the Alaska refuge.
The House passed the energy bill this summer, with the encouragement of the Teamsters union, which is
looking at the thousands of jobs drilling would create. Republicans deployed Representative Tom DeLay of
Texas, the majority whip, to try to muster public support for the drilling, and the president seemed eager to
join in.
After hearing progress reports from his cabinet on the war on terrorism, Mr. Bush said, unprompted, that he
wanted Congress to grant him the authority to act quickly on trade matters and to pass an energy bill.
"There was a good energy bill passed out of the House of Representatives," he said in a rare detour from
war-related matters since Sept. 11. "And the reason it passed is because members of both parties understand
an energy bill is not only good for jobs, it's important for our national security to have a good energy policy."
He added: "And I urge the Senate to listen to the will of the senators and move a bill, move a bill that will help
Americans find work and also make it easier for all of us around this table to protect the security of the
country."
The United States imports half the oil it uses. Critics of drilling in Alaska argue that, by the government's own
estimate, opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would not yield oil for at least seven years and then
would yield enough for only 140 days. Republicans argue that the drilling would take place in only 1.5 million
acres of the 19 million-acre refuge and would provide thousands of jobs at a time when unemployment is
rising.
Phil Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, which opposes drilling in the Alaskan refuge, said
Mr. Bush's policy made little sense in light of the conflict.
"Even if you drill in Alaska," Mr. Clapp said, "the Department of Energy projects a 25 percent to 30 percent
increase in U.S. oil imports from the Middle East and the Caspian Sea over the next 20 years. His energy
policy would make us more dependent on the countries that are likely to be the most unstable as a result of
the military action in Afghanistan."
nytimes.com |
