US House passes energy bill with ANWR drilling
Date: 14-Apr-03
Country: USA
Author: Tom Doggett
The bill updates U.S. energy policy for the first time in a decade. The most controversial provision in the legislation endorsed the Bush administration plan to open part of the sprawling Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, to oil drilling in an area which may hold up to 16 billion barrels of crude oil, according to government estimates.
The legislation cleared the House in a 247-to-175 vote.
The bill also contains $18.7 billion in tax incentives to promote oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear and alternative energy sources, and also implement energy conservation measures.
Most House Democrats opposed drilling in the refuge and said the legislation primarily benefited the oil industry.
Democrat Jim McDermott of Washington called the bill a "dream plan" for big oil companies, with less money for energy conservation and alternative fuels. "This is an oil company bill. It's oil, oil, oil - it has a greasy feeling to it," he said during debate on the measure.
Republican lawmakers were the biggest backers of drilling in the northern coastal portion of the 19-million-acre (7.7-million-hectare) refuge, arguing the U.S.-led war in Iraq heightens the importance of reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil.
"This bill is designed to do that in an environmentally and responsible way," said Republican Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington.
The United States consumes about 20 million barrels of crude oil and refined petroleum products a day, with almost 60 percent of those supplies imported.
The Bush administration said that ANWR's potential 16 billion barrels of crude oil is too important for U.S. energy security and the economy to remain in the ground.
The House rejected, by a vote of 228-197, an amendment by Democratic Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson of Connecticut to strip the ANWR drilling language from the bill.
To try to win over drilling opponents, ANWR exploration backers agreed to limit drilling activities in the refuge to no more than 2,000 acres (810 hectares) at any one time.
The House also defeated an amendment to the bill that would have required the Transportation Department to come up with a way to reduce by 5 percent the amount of gasoline consumed by cars and sport utility vehicles by 2010.
Separately, lawmakers voted down a proposal to establish federal emergency gasoline stockpiles in California, the Midwest and the Northeast.
The Senate Energy Committee will continue writing its own energy bill, which does not allow drilling in ANWR, when Congress returns from its two-week spring recess.
That legislation is expected to be considered by the full Senate in early May, but differences in the bills from each chamber would have to be reconciled before President George W. Bush could sign a final energy bill into law.