Daschle says has Senate votes to stop ANWR drilling
Date: 01-Mar-02
Country: USA
Author: Tom Doggett
Republicans argue the refuge's potential 16 billion barrels of oil is needed to help reduce U.S. oil imports, but Daschle and other Democrats want to keep the wilderness area closed and instead promote renewable energy sources and energy conservation measures.
"I don't believe that the 60 votes that will be required to pass an ANWR amendment are there," Daschle told reporters on Capitol Hill. "That will be the subject of a filibuster."
While Republicans say a majority of the Senate's 100 members favor drilling in the Alaskan refuge, under the chamber's rules 60 votes are needed to adopt such an amendment and stop a threatened filibuster from Democrats opposed to opening the protected area.
Drilling in ANWR is key to the Bush administration's plan to boost domestic energy supplies and cut dependence on foreign oil imports, which now provide 60 percent of the oil consumed daily in the U.S. market.
To win over enough senators, the White House is considering a plan to scale back the original 1.5 million acres of the refuge that it wanted opened to energy exploration to just 500,000 acres.
Daschle said there would be no compromise on drilling in ANWR, whether it be a smaller area, or be allowed in exchange for the Democrats' desire to raising the fuel mileage requirements for cars and gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles.
Republican Frank Murkowski of Alaska, who is leader of the ANWR pro-drilling forces, took to the Senate floor Wednesday to complain how Daschle has bogged down the energy bill.
Daschle pulled the bill from the Senate Energy Committee last year as the panel was set to vote to allow drilling in ANWR and Murkowski claims Daschle will pull the legislation from the Senate floor this time around if Republicans get the 60 votes to open the refuge.
"I suggest this is poor way to do business," Murkowski said.
Senators are not expected to get into any substantive debate on the energy bill until next week.
Meanwhile, former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, sent a letter to senators this week urging them to pass a balanced energy plan to keep ANWR closed.
"The truth is we could drill every national park, wildlife refuge and coastline and still be importing more than half of our oil, remaining just as vulnerable to the price fluctuations of the global oil market," Carter said.
Government estimates put the amount of recoverable oil in the refuge at anywhere from 5 billion to 16 billion barrels.
Environmentalists say that would equal a six-month supply of oil, and does not justify the drilling that would destroy wildlife in the refuge. ANWR is home to migrating caribou, polar bears, and other wildlife.
Republicans counter that the refuge's oil production would be spread out over several decades, reaching a peak output of about 1 million barrels per day, and would equal the amount of crude the United States imports from Iraq for 50 years.
Though viewed as an adversary by most Americans, Iraq has become the sixth biggest supplier of oil to the United States.