US Senate panel delays action on Alaska drilling
Date: 10-Sep-01
Country: USA
Author: Tom Doggett
Opening the Alaskan wilderness area is key to the White House plan to boost domestic energy supplies, but environmental groups and many Democratic lawmakers are against it.
The panel will vote on electricity deregulation provisions this week, but won't consider Alaska drilling until the week of Sept. 17 at the earliest, the panel spokesman said. The committee earlier had planned to consider the controversial drilling issue this week.
The Bush administration wants to open a total of 1.5 million acres (607,500 hectares) of the refuge's 19 million acres (7.7 million hectares) to exploration. The White House claims only about 2,000 acres (810 hectares) of the Alaskan wilderness refuge would be directly affected by drilling equipment at any given time.
The refuge, located on Alaska's northern coast, is home to snow geese, caribou, polar bears and other wildlife. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls the refuge "one of the finest examples of wilderness left on the planet" and one of the least affected by modern man.
A Democratic-sponsored energy bill does not allow drilling, but Republicans are expected to offer language during the committee's legislative debate to open the refuge.
A recent Reuters survey of the committee's 23 members showed such legislation would pass the panel by a one-vote majority, because of two Democrats who are expected to vote for drilling and one Republican who opposes it.
Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Hawaii's Daniel Akaka are expected to break ranks with their party to support drilling. By contrast, Oregon Republican Gordon Smith has said he'll vote against opening the refuge.
TEAMSTERS VS GREEN GROUPS
The committee's chairman, Democrat Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, said drilling in the refuge would not produce enough oil to affect U.S. energy costs.
"Oil produced from the Arctic refuge is not likely to influence the world price of oil, or the prices that U.S. consumers pay for gasoline," he said last week in a speech on the Senate floor.
Drilling supporters argue the refuge could hold up to 16 billion barrels of oil. The United States consumes nearly 20 million barrels of petroleum each day, and must import more than half of that amount.
Green groups and some Democrats say a better energy policy approach is to tighten U.S. mileage standards for sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and cars to reduce demand.
The Teamsters Union is lobbying senators to back the Alaska drilling plan, claiming it would create more than 700,000 jobs. That estimate, however, has been criticized by environmental groups as based on a ten-year-old study that didn't take into account other world oil market factors.
The League of Conservation Voters and other groups that oppose drilling say the number of jobs created by drilling in the refuge would be closer to 46,000.
President George W. Bush last week, expressing concern over a report that showed the U.S. unemployment rate hit a four-year high in August, urged Congress to pass his energy plan.
"To help get our economy moving again, Congress needs to enact an energy plan which will lower energy costs and create jobs," Bush told reporters.
The administration said earlier this year that its plan was a long-term policy and would not have much short-term benefit.
FILIBUSTER THREATENED
The Senate energy panel has already cleared the legislation's less controversial research and development provisions.
Next Thursday, the committee will begin debating the bill's electricity market reform provisions, which could take up to three days to complete, the panel spokesman said.
Bingaman has said he wants the committee to finish its work on the bill by the end of the month. The measure would then go to the Senate floor, where it has an uncertain fate.
Several moderate Republican lawmakers from the Northeast states have already come out against drilling in the refuge, which could doom the bill.
Democrats Joseph Lieber
