White House Won't Back
Down on Arctic Oil Drilling

Reuters.com
Posted September 12, 2003

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration told Congress on Wednesday it was sticking with its plan for a broad energy bill to open an Arctic refuge in Alaska to oil drilling, even though the White House has been warned the proposal could kill the legislation.

Senate and House negotiators are trying to hammer out legislation by the end of this month that would be the first major overhaul in U.S. energy policy in a decade.

House lawmakers want to give oil companies access to the potential 10 billion barrels of crude under the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), while the Senate voted earlier this year to keep the refuge closed to energy exploration.

In a letter to the joint Senate-House negotiating committee, the administration urged lawmakers to adopt the House position that would allow drilling in the smaller coastal plain of the 19-million-acre (7.7-million-hectare) ANWR. It would also limit exploration activities within the coastal plain to just 2,000 acres at any one time.

"Opening the ANWR is not only key to increasing domestic production and reducing (U.S.) dependence on foreign oil, but also to creating thousands of new well-paying jobs for American workers," U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham wrote to Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, who chairs the negotiating panel.

The White House said new drilling technology means oil firms can explore the area without harming the environment.

Green groups, many Democrats and even some moderate Republicans fear opening ANWR would destroy the habitat of polar bears, caribou and other wildlife that live there.

Senate Democrats have threatened to filibuster, or talk to death, any final energy bill that gives oil companies access to the pristine refuge. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle on Tuesday called the ANWR drilling provision a "poison pill" that would derail the entire bill.

"The administration believes Congress should look at the fact, not the rhetoric, concerning the nation's best onshore prospect for oil, a small part of the coastal plain of ANWR," Abraham said.

Domenici has warned it would be difficult for the president to get a broad energy bill that includes ANWR drilling. "We're charged with getting an (energy) bill, not charged with getting a bill with ANWR on it," he said last week.

Reuters.com

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