Nick Snow
Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON, DC, Dec. 20 -- A provision to authorize oil and gas leasing on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain continued its wild ride through the 109th Congress as the Senate prepared on Dec. 20 to consider the defense appropriations bill in which the ANWR provision currently resides (OGJ Online, Dec. 19, 2005).
The House passed the bill by a 308-106 vote early Dec. 19 more than 12 hr after it convened. ANWR leasing opponents in the Senate quickly said they considered passage of the defense bill a top priority but without the ANWR provision.
"As this senator sees it, we could wrap up this business today and go home," Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said in a Dec. 19 floor speech. "But because a provision in this legislation coming over from the House opens up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, you bet there are members on both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate who have great concerns over this measure."
ANWR's inclusion in the defense appropriations bill "is nothing more than legislative blackmail to try to get colleagues to vote for something because it is a must-pass bill," Cantwell said. "That's because, in fact, the proponents of this measure know that there is great opposition to this process and to drilling in the Arctic."
The House-Senate Defense Appropriations Conference Committee voted on Dec. 19 to keep the ANWR leasing provision in the defense appropriations bill.
"The Defense Department is the largest consumer of oil in the federal government," said Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who led the effort to fold ANWR into the defense bill after the House dropped it from the budget bill. "We must develop our resources in the Coastal Plain to ensure we can meet our defense-related energy needs and reduce our dependence on unstable and unfriendly regimes."
But defense appropriations competed with the fiscal 2006 federal budget and Patriot Act reauthorization for Senate floor time on Dec. 20. That set the stage for behind-the-scenes negotiations involving ANWR leasing authorization's retention in the defense bill.
Alaskan support
Stevens defended the tactic in a Dec. 20 floor speech. He was joined by Alaska's other senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski.
"Sufficient oil supplies are vital to our military. That's the bottom line," Murkowski said. "Military consumption accounts for about 80% of our government's energy use. Any action we can take to help our military get oil is a worthy inclusion in a defense appropriations bill."
Citing estimates that the Coastal Plain contains 10 billion bbl of oil, she said, "This is, by far, the largest known source of domestic onshore oil in this country today."
Stevens said several senators critical of including ANWR leasing in the defense appropriations bill asked for seemingly unrelated amendments to be included in earlier measures. The current defense bill, he pointed out, includes provisions to increase Hurricane Katrina recovery assistance and avian flu defense preparation.
Stevens said a group of House members asked him to include ANWR leasing authorization in the defense appropriations bill and agreed to get it passed there.
"We have before us a bill that provides $427.6 billion for the Defense Department," he said. "It is a conference report that should be voted on. It is for the troops. Those who vote against it must know that they are setting up delays for getting the money to our troops."
Alaska's congressional delegation has been fighting the ANWR leasing authorization battle for nearly three decades.
Murkowski said, "We've debated this issue so many times on this floor that some of my colleagues ask, 'Can't we just pass ANWR so we don't have to keep hearing this debate year after year?'"
Stevens noted that authorization to construct the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline passed the Senate by a single vote in 1973 without the threat of a filibuster. He said ANWR leasing has always faced the threat of a filibuster and added, "We can either pass this bill soon, do our jobs, and fulfill the desires of millions of people, or we can pull it down, ask the House to reconstitute the conference committee with the same members, and likely produce the same result."
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
