Watching Government More on ANWR; Bush speaks up

Oct. 23, 1995
With Patrick Crow from Washington, D.C. Alaska apparently has thwarted a move in Congress to knock an Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) leasing provision from the budget reconciliation bill. Also, former President Bush has joined the fray, announcing his enthusiastic support for leasing the ANWR Coastal Plain. The Clinton administration threatened to veto the budget bill if Congress retains a provision allowing ANWR exploration (OGJ, Sept. 25, p. 36). Leasing would raise an estimated $1.3

Alaska apparently has thwarted a move in Congress to knock an Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) leasing provision from the budget reconciliation bill.

Also, former President Bush has joined the fray, announcing his enthusiastic support for leasing the ANWR Coastal Plain.

The Clinton administration threatened to veto the budget bill if Congress retains a provision allowing ANWR exploration (OGJ, Sept. 25, p. 36). Leasing would raise an estimated $1.3 billion for the federal government.

Both the House and Senate are expected to vote on budget bills this week.

Pro and con

Moderate Republicans had approached House budget committee Chairman John Kasich (R-Ohio) on the issue, arguing the monetary gains were not substantial enough to justify a blemish on their environmental voting records.

Kasich was a willing audience. He is concerned that the informal agreement with Alaska state officials to split ANWR leasing revenues 50-50 might not hold up.

Alaska maintains its statehood compact entitles it to 90% of all mineral leasing revenues and has a lawsuit pending against the federal government to maintain that right.

Those arguments were laid before House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) last week. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), chairman of the House resources committee, strongly argued the case for exploration.

Afterwards, Gingrich and Kasich said ANWR probably would stay in the bill.

Bush always favored ANWR drilling, but antileasing Democrats controlled key committees, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill prevented legislation from being passed during his administration.

Bushs current remarks on ANWR came in a letter to Senate energy committee Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska).

My support is based on the conviction that we must not continue to become increasingly dependent on foreign oil, Bush wrote. A major lesson from Saddam Husseins brutal invasion of Kuwait is that we must not become totally dependent on foreign oil.

Right now we have good and reliable friends in the Middle East, but it is only prudent that we find and develop our own petroleum reserves.

Environmental issue

Bush also criticized extreme voices in the environmental lobby.

I am totally convinced that ANWR oil can be developed in an environmentally sound way and that there will be no damage to the caribou indigenous to the area, he wrote.

I understand that some of the same extreme voices that were heard in the 1970svoices that predicted extinction of the caribourefuse to admit they were wrong. Indeed, not only are the caribou not extinct, but they have proliferated. Copyright 1995 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.