| Stevens,
Murkowski Threaten 'No' Vote on Energy Bill
Associated Press
Posted October 3, 2003
Alaska's U.S. Senate delegation has pledged to vote against
the proposed national energy bill if it does not open the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling or provide
a tax incentive for a natural gas pipeline from Alaska.
"Lisa Murkowski and I have made it plain," said
U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. "We will not vote
for the bill unless it contains one or the other or both."
The pledge puts another wrinkle in the endgame as the Republican
leadership and President Bush seek to pass the legislation
later this month. With a closely divided Senate, every Republican
vote could be needed to pass the bill.
But if a conference committee crafting the final bill includes
the Alaska items, they could drive away other votes.
"It's going to be a very close vote, so people are
scrambling, trying to explain to us why we should go along
with this or that, which is sort of what we need,"
Stevens told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and other media.
ANWR and the pipeline incentive are "the two most
controversial portions of the energy bill," he said.
ANWR drilling has drawn opposition from environmental groups.
Several senators have vowed to filibuster any bill that
allows it.
The gas line tax incentive has broad, bipartisan support,
but also has fervent opponents in the administration and
private sector.
Stevens said he was not sure the delegation would succeed
in securing the incentives.
"It is difficult because behind the scenes is a group
called ARC," he said.
Arctic Resources Co. has promoted an incentive-free pipeline
from Prudhoe Bay across the Beaufort Sea to the Mackenzie
River delta, where it would pick up more gas and then head
south through Canada.
The energy bill in Congress would prohibit that route,
essentially directing instead that the line come south through
Alaska and then follow the Alaska Highway to the Lower 48.
Stevens said Arctic Resources' influence is far out of
proportion to its ability to deliver a product.
"That organization is just a publicity organization.
It has no assets. It has no production. It has no capability
of building a pipeline. And it's really a front group for
Exxon, I think," Stevens said.
Exxon, one of the three major North Slope oil and gas owners,
has declined to endorse the natural gas tax incentives and
designated pipeline route. The others, BP and ConocoPhillips,
have endorsed the measures.
Forrest Hoglund, Arctic Resources chief executive officer,
said his company is not a front for Exxon. He previously
worked for Exxon but left in 1977.
"There's no connection whatsoever. They (Exxon officials)
have stayed away from us, mainly because of Alaskan fears
like everyone else," he said.
Associated Press
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