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Senate drops ANWR Stevens fumes as eight Republican senators break ranks and support move to yank ANWR from budget bill; supporters vow to carry on Steve Sutherlin PNA Associate Editor
Sen. Ted Stevens blasted opponents of oil and gas drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge March 19, after a vote in the Senate scrapped plans to include an ANWR development provision in its fiscal 2004 budget resolution.
In a narrow 52-48 vote, senators adopted an amendment offered by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to cull the ANWR provision from the bill.
“People who vote against this today are voting against me, and I will not forget,” Stevens said.
“Senator Stevens felt betrayed,” said Roger Herrera, Arctic Power’s Washington, D.C. coordinator. Stevens did not name names, but he said he was let down by three senators who promised their votes if needed to defeat the Boxer amendment, Herrera said.
“You bet your bottom dollar I’ll remember,” Stevens said after the vote. “If I ever give my word, I keep it. I’m mad enough to eat nails right now, to have people not keep their word to me.”
Herrera said the outcome was a major defeat for the president and the White House, a worst-case scenario for Alaska, and a surprise to ANWR development supporters.
“I was confident we would prevail,” he said. “It was a very, very strange and dramatic political happening.”
The fight will go on Herrera said Arctic Power would examine the defeat in “the cool light of dawn” before making its next move. He said the group has other options to secure approval for drilling in the refuge.
“Nobody is going to give up on this,” he said.
Stevens said in a statement after the vote that the fight to explore and develop energy resources in the refuge would continue.
“We’re going to pursue the rights we have under the 1002 area until we win,” he said.
During the debate, Stevens said he supported the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act only because the act set aside the 1.5 million acre 1002 area within ANWR for oil and gas exploration. He asked the Senate to honor that commitment. Vote by those who don’t understand Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici was also disappointed in the outcome of the vote.
“This vote today was cast by senators who don’t understand the link between abundant, affordable energy and a vigorous economy. I do,” Domenici said in a statement. “I refuse to turn my back on this economy and the American consumer.”
Domenici said his committee would mark up energy legislation in April, aimed at increasing and diversifying the nation’s energy supply, including oil and gas.
“If we continue to let our energy production dwindle, supplies will remain tight, prices will remain volatile, the cost of goods will continue to rise, America will lose more jobs and our economy will stumble,” he said. “These aren’t possibilities, these are certainties.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Alaska’s Congressional delegation will seek House support for ANWR development in the budget resolution process, or press for drilling authorization in a comprehensive energy bill that will be considered by Congress later in the year.
“You work hard and you hope the outlook is favorable, but today it was not favorable for Alaska or for the country,” she said. “The issue is far from being dead or gone; it absolutely is not.
“We will continue to raise the issue not only for Alaska, but for the country, for jobs, for economic security and for all the other right reasons we raised on the floor.”
Governor: vote a message to Saddam Gov. Frank Murkowski said Saddam Hussein would read the Senate’s action as an acknowledgement the United States isn’t ready to reduce its dependence on foreign oil sources.
“We will proceed, and there will be other opportunities to revisit this issue, to get more oil flowing and we will be discussing those shortly,” he said. “I am pursuing other opportunities to highlight this injustice that has been done to Alaska and our nation.”
After her ANWR development-killing amendment was passed, Boxer in a statement savored her victory, but added a warning that pro-development forces will continue to fight.
“I am very pleased that we were able to pass this amendment and prevent the Administration’s push to open the pristine wilderness of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration,” Boxer said. “We have defeated similar proposals in the past, and I am pleased that as a bipartisan group we have stood firm in our resolve to protect the refuge.
“Americans must continue to be vigilant because proponents of drilling in this wildlife refuge have vowed they will not give up.”
Eight Republicans broke ranks with the Republican majority and the White House to vote for the Boxer amendment. They were Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine; Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island; Gordon Smith of Oregon; Mike DeWine of Ohio; Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois; John McCain of Arizona, and Norm Coleman of Minnesota. Democrats who voted with the majority against Boxer’s amendment were John Breaux and Mary Landrieu, both of Louisiana; Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye, both of Hawaii; and Zell Miller of Georgia.
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