fff said:
Cal said:
Yeah, they claim that drilling in ANWR won't make any significant difference...so they shut down the strategic oil reserve...makes sense. :roll:
George W. Bush and the
Conservative Republican party had complete control of the government for years.
They did not vote to drill in ANWR. They did not vote to drill off Florida. You can't hang this one on the Democrats.
Frankie, where do you get your misguided info?
Senate loses bid to drill in ANWR.
Long, bitter battle
A decade ago a Republican-led Congress used a parliamentary maneuver to get an ANWR bill successfully past a filibuster, only to have it vetoed by President Clinton. This time President Bush has made ANWR drilling one of his top priorities and is eager to sign a bill.
Drilling opponents long have argued that ANWR’s oil should not be exploited because of the coastal plain’s fragile ecosystem and its wildlife. While the region looks bleak during its long winters and oil can be seen seeping from some of its rock formations, the coastal strip also is the calving ground for caribou and home to polar bears, musk oxen, and the annual influx of millions of migratory birds.
“There are literally hundreds of thousands of Americans following this issue,” William Meadows, president of the Wilderness Society, said Tuesday, adding that there has been “an outpouring of angst and concern” over Stevens’ attempt to link hurricane relief money, low-income energy assistance funds and money for the Iraq war to push the drilling measure through a reluctant Senate.
Drilling proponents say modern techniques can extract the oil without damaging the environment.
Bill passes House
The House passed the $454 billion defense spending bill earlier this week, 308-106, with scores of lawmakers who previously opposed refuge drilling voting for the legislation.
The bill includes $29 billion for Katrina hurricane relief, $2 billion in emergency funding for low-income families pay high heating bills this winter as well as money for troops in Iraq. Stevens’ provision would funnel 80 percent of the proceeds from Arctic refuge oil lease sales to hurricane relief and 5 percent for the energy assistance program.
The legislation anticipates about $5 billion in federal revenue bonus bids from oil leases, the first of which must be issued within 22 months and the second package in 2010. Half of the lease proceeds and future royalties from oil production would go to Alaska.
Alaska relies heavily on proceeds from oil production, a revenue stream that has been in steady decline as the vast Prudhoe Bay oil fields to the west of ANWR become less productive.
© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Thursday, March 17, 2005
Senate OKs oil drilling in Alaska's ANWR
Democrats vow that the fight is not over for wilderness area
By CHARLES POPE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON -- With a hard-fought Senate vote yesterday clearing the way, supporters of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge said survey teams could arrive on the harsh landscape within a year and leases for tapping its significant deposits of oil and natural gas could be sold as soon as 2007.
And according to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, if all goes according to plan, oil and natural gas could be flowing from ANWR in seven to 10 years.
Those predictions, which once seemed unthinkable, emerged as far more likely in the wake of a 51-49 Senate vote to allow drilling for oil and natural gas in a protected part of the Alaskan wilderness. The vote was a major victory for President Bush and his supporters in business and elsewhere who had long advocated drilling in ANWR as a way to ease the nation's dependence on foreign supplies.
The breakthrough came after two days of heavy lobbying on both sides of an emotional issue that has dominated environmental politics for nearly a decade. Until yesterday, opponents had always been able to stop legislation to open ANWR, an ecologically rich and largely untouched area of northern Alaska that defenders said is far too valuable to threaten with development.
"This action is a crucial step in President Bush's plan for reducing America's dependence on foreign sources of energy through conservation, development of renewable energy sources and increased domestic production of traditional energy," Norton said after the vote.
Opponents, however, vowed not to give up, even though they conceded yesterday's vote was a major setback. They sharply criticized Republicans for attaching the ANWR provision to a resolution setting budget priorities.
"The fight over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is far from over," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who led the opposition. "We almost stopped this budget trickery on the floor today. ... I'll be prepared to use every tool at my disposal to stop drilling in the Arctic. We need a serious national strategy to move us toward energy independence."
Among other ideas, opponents said they would challenge the ANWR provision on parliamentary grounds. The challenge will argue that the ANWR provision is out of order on a budget bill because it deals with policy rather than money. Republicans counter that the provision is safe because it calls for the government to raise $2.7 billion by selling leases and through royalties from ANWR during the next five years.
The House has not included a similar provision in its budget, so the issue is still subject to negotiations later this year. But a House aide said that the chamber is inclined to agree to the Senate wording when the House and Senate bills are merged into one. The House has repeatedly passed measures by lopsided margins over the years to allow drilling in ANWR only to see the legislation stalled in the Senate.
Another possible hurdle is the fact that final passage of the budget bill containing the ANWR provision is not assured. Congress has been unable to pass the budget bill in two of the past three years, and this year there are major fights looming on Medicaid spending, tax cuts and other politically divisive questions.
"The (Republican-led) Senate just decided to make its job on the budget a whole lot harder," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group opposed to drilling.