ANWR hangs on one vote

High oil prices, fear of war boosting nationwide support for ANWR development; state House vote to cut Arctic Power funds hampers lobbying effort in states of key senators

Steve Sutherlin

PNA Associate Editor

The fate of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will likely be decided by one U.S. senator’s vote on an upcoming budget reconciliation bill, which is expected to contain language which will open the coastal plain to oil and gas exploration and development.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles, R-Okla., introduced a budget resolution containing an Arctic drilling measure March 12. The committee met again March 13 to consider the pro-drilling language, among other issues.

ANWR development supporters need 50 votes in the Senate to pass the budget reconciliation bill, which cannot be filibustered, so a majority vote prevails. The vice president, a supporter of ANWR development, would cast the tie-breaking vote.

The pro-ANWR development camp currently counts 49 strong votes, with a few senators still undecided, Roger Herrera, Arctic Power’s Washington, D.C. coordinator, told Petroleum News March 12.

The vote on ANWR drilling is expected in the Senate later this month, when the budget reconciliation bill is sent to the Senate floor.

Herrera said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., is a strong candidate to change his stance and vote yes on the issue. Sen. Ted Stevens and Sen. Lisa Murkowski have agreed to support biodiesel fuel incentives Coleman wants, he said.

The senators from Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both Democrats, are also strongly considering supporting ANWR development, Herrera said.

Spiking oil prices and the fear of a war with Iraq are boosting support nationwide for ANWR drilling, according to recent press reports. Consumers, reacting to higher gasoline prices, are seemingly taking more interest in the issue of dwindling domestic supplies and ANWR development. (See related news item on page 5.)

The week of May 10, the national price for gasoline averaged $1.712 a gallon, one-tenth of one cent below the all-time record high reached in May 2001, the Department of Energy said.

U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton urged Congress to open the refuge to drilling, in remarks to members of the House Resource Committee May 12. She said oil reserves in the coastal plain are the nation’s largest single prospect for future oil production.

“The administration firmly believes that we can develop energy at home while protecting the environmental values we all hold dear,” Norton said. “The Coastal Plain of ANWR’s 1002 area is the nation’s single greatest onshore oil reserve. The USGS estimates that it contains a mean expected value of 10.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil. To put that into context, the potential daily production from ANWR’s 1002 area is larger than the current daily onshore oil production of any of the lower 48 states.”

On May 11, Norton asked farming and union interests to “knock on doors and help sell the message” on Arctic drilling to any fence-sitting senators.

Herrera said it is important for senators to hear from their constituents on the issue. He said Arctic Power had been working with unions to rally ANWR development support in the home states of undecided senators, but when the Alaska House of Representatives voted Feb. 26 to fund just $1 million of the $3 million promised to Arctic Power, the group’s efforts beyond Capitol Hill have been hamstrung.

Herrera said unions have been matching Arctic Power spending, and have mobilized locals to spread the message. Arctic Power and other groups have asked friends in those states to call and write their senators.

“The benefits of getting legislation through Congress, for Alaska, are immediate and immense,” he said.

Editor’s note: The state Senate voted March 13 on Arctic Power funding and did not increase the amount.