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ANWR headed to U.S. Senate floor Republican leaders vow to win approval to explore nation’s largest untapped oil deposit, send unencumbered measure to House Rose Ragsdale For Petroleum News
U.S. Senate leaders are moving to approve opening the arctic coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling in Congress’ annual budget resolution process.
Only this time, Senate leaders have vowed to insulate the White House-backed drilling provision from other controversial legislation that could derail its passage.
The move comes less than three months after top Republicans failed to attach similar language to a U.S. Department of Defense spending bill in a last ditch effort to pass the measure in December.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee included ANWR drilling in the revenue portion of its budget plans March 2 after hearing Interior Secretary Gale Norton’s assessment of the nation’s energy needs.
Norton told the panel that the most promising area for significant long-term oil discoveries and dramatic gains in domestic production in the United States is the Alaska North Slope.
She quoted U.S. Geological Survey estimates of a 95 percent probability that at least 5.7 billion barrels of technically recoverable undiscovered oil lie beneath the ANWR coastal plain and a 5 percent probability of at least 16 billion barrels, and the mean, or expected value, is 10.36 billion barrels of technically recoverable undiscovered oil.
“At $55 a barrel, more than 90 percent of the assessed technically recoverable resource estimate is thought to be economically viable. At peak production, ANWR could produce about 1 million barrels of oil a day, about 20 percent of our domestic daily production and more oil than any state, including Texas and Louisiana, Norton said.
She said the 2007 budget assumes the Congress will enact legislation in 2006 to open ANWR to energy exploration and development with a first lease sale held in 2008 and a second in 2010. The budget estimates that these two lease sales will generate a combined $8 billion bonus revenues, including $7 billion from the 2008 lease sale.
Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., praised Norton and the U.S. Department of Interior for supporting “environmentally-gentle oil development in ANWR, a critical step in reducing America’s reliance on foreign oil.”
New strategy for drilling bill Domenici told reporters March 7 that the fiscal 2007 budget resolution will contain language opening Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration as a “single shot” reconciliation bill, which would make it immune from filibuster.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who sits on the energy panel with Domenici, is leading the charge to gain passage for ANWR drilling.
“The Energy Committee is counting on ANWR revenues in its FY’ 07 budget, and the senator supports going forward,” Murkowski spokesman Kevin Sweeney said March 7. “But as in the past, there are several hurdles along the way. Getting out of the Budget Committee this week, then getting passed on the (Senate) floor and then sending it over to the House for its consideration.”
The Senate Budget Committee was expected to vote on the ANWR drilling measure March 9, and Republican leaders said they had the votes for its passage, according to Sweeney.
The full Senate is expected to vote on the drilling measure March 16,” he added.
When ANWR proponents tried a similar strategy last year, it was blocked by moderate Republicans in the House who opposed drilling in the 19 million-acre refuge. House Democrats, who favor ANWR drilling, also voted against the legislation because it was packaged with cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicaid and student loans.
Republicans believe they will overcome the opposition because the measure would be free-standing, indicating it would not be encumbered by other controversial proposals such as President Bush’s plans to trim billions from Medicare, according to Domenici.
Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, also said March 7 that Medicare will not be part of budget reconciliation, at least in the Senate.
By including ANWR in a budget bill, drilling supporters hope to pass the measure with a simple majority of 51 votes rather than the 60 votes needed to get other types of legislation through the Senate.
Still, it remains uncertain whether drilling supporters can round up enough votes for passage in both Houses during an election year, observers say.
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