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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (10156)	3/14/2005 8:36:57 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 362833

ANWR on the Brink - Again By Kelpie Wilson t r u t h o u t \| Perspective Monday 14 March 2005 It's just one wildlife refuge in Alaska, but it seems to have Washington, D.C. tied in knots. A million and a half acres of wilderness in the far north, with a small puddle of oil beneath its surface - who would think that a place like that could be responsible for the turmoil in Washington that it is causing? President Bush went on the stump last week in Ohio, calling for the opening of the refuge to oil development, stating it would "create thousands of jobs" and reduce oil imports. He said we need to drill there "for the sake of national security," to end our dependence on foreign oil. He called on Congress to pass an energy bill that includes the opening of ANWR. But the U.S. Geological Survey has concluded that there are probably only 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil in ANWR. That amounts to just a six-month supply for the U.S. The price for that oil is the spoiling of a pristine wilderness that is a vital nursery for one of the largest remaining caribou herds and a home to polar bears, arctic foxes, white wolves and migratory birds. Since coming to office, Bush has tried hard to get Congress to open the refuge and has been rebuffed more than once by the Senate. Yet with Republican victories last fall, he may now have the votes he needs - if he can avoid a filibuster. The filibuster is the Republican bete noir, the only thing that stands between them and total domination of all three branches of government. Senate Majority leader Bill Frist has threatened to remove the 200-year-old senate rule that allows a minority to use endless debate to block voting. Doing away with the filibuster would mark a radical change in the Senate and is being dubbed "the nuclear option." The Republican strategy for ANWR turns on circumventing the filibuster, and they are scheduling a vote for this Wednesday that will knock out any filibuster option for ANWR. Here's how they will do it: first Bush includes 2.4 billion dollars in hypothetical ANWR oil leasing revenues in his budget. Then Congress puts ANWR revenues in its budget resolutions, even though drilling in ANWR is still illegal. This is no problem because there is a later process called budget reconciliation where items in the budget resolution that need authorizing legislation can be addressed. The catch-22 is that, like the budget resolution process, the budget reconciliation process is filibuster-proof. ANWR could then be opened up by a simple majority vote of 51 senators. That's the theory. In practice it may turn out a little different. Some of the traditional allies like Big Oil itself have lost their appetite for the wildlife refuge. BP, Conoco-Phillips and Chevron-Texaco have all pulled out of Arctic Power, the industry group lobbying for ANWR access. ANWR's oil pool is too small and not worth the trouble. Meanwhile, over in the House, budget committee chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) failed to include the ANWR revenue in his budget markup. Nussle said that including the language could derail his entire bill. A letter from thirteen House Republicans, led by Rep. Nancy Johnson of Connecticut, asked Nussle to avoid ANWR and the ensuing debate. The letter stated: "While we welcome open debate on the issue of opening the refuge to drilling, we believe that the best vehicle for such debate is as part of a larger energy bill, not the budget or resolution." Opening ANWR is starting to look like real tar baby even to Republicans. Congressman Joe Barton, the Texan who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is trying to keep ANWR out of his energy bill so it has a better chance of passing. ANWR helped to kill last year's energy bill. Drilling in the wildlife refuge is just not popular with the American people, who would rather save the wilderness and invest money in more fuel efficient cars. Maybe that's why Alaska Senator Ted Stevens says he is "clinically depressed" over ANWR. Stevens told reporters on Friday that if he fails to get ANWR this time he might just quit the Senate. Whether Senate Republicans can bring the House along now or later in a conference committee, or whether a budget resolution passes at all this year, are open questions. Still, Senate Republicans probably have the votes to proceed with their budget resolution strategy. When it comes to oil, fools rush in where angels fear to tread. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kelpie Wilson is the t r u t h o u t environment editor. A veteran forest protection activist and mechanical engineer, she writes from her solar-powered cabin in the Siskiyou Mountains of southwest Oregon. -------