House passes refinery expansion bill, ANWR dropped from mining bill

The Associated Press

House Republicans pushed through legislation June 16 that supporters said would speed construction of new refineries to ease tight gasoline supplies. Opponents said the bill would reduce environmental protection and do little to stem high fuel costs.

The legislation was approved by a vote of 239-192 as House Republican leaders sought to dramatize the congressional impasse over energy legislation by bringing up for votes a series of energy-related bills.

The refinery legislation would make the Energy Department the key agency dealing with refinery permits for plants proposed in designated development zones where there is high unemployment or where a refinery had been closed. It also would require that permit decisions be made within six months after applications are received.

GOP leaders also unexpectedly abandoned plans to take up once again the issue of oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge after it became uncertain they had enough votes to get the bill passed.

To attract more Democrats, the bill earmarked revenue from the refuge’s oil for funding of a miners’ health care plan. However, the miners’ union said it opposed the provision, prompting Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., to withdraw the legislation. The House repeatedly has approved oil drilling in the Alaska refuge, only to see the measure killed in the Senate.

ANWR could re-emerge

“One of the unions that we were trying to help in this endeavor decided at the 11th hour not to support the bill,” Kennedy said. “So Chairman Pombo pulled it from consideration today and we’re back at the drawing board.”

Many coal worker benefits are currently paid by the Combined Benefits Fund, which Congress created in the early 1990s to cover a combination of old agreements between UMWA and coal companies.

The fund is supported by coal company contributions, but those haven’t been high enough to keep up with costs. Congress paid $34 million into the fund last year to keep it afloat.

Congress has also allowed benefits to be paid with money from another fund — one set up to pay for cleanup of abandoned mine lands using industry fees. But Congress only allowed that fund to support benefits for “orphaned” miners — those whose former employers no longer exist. Miners want interest on the abandoned mine lands money to also prop up the Combined Benefits Fund.

ANWR revenues could help do that, Kennedy said.

“All the stakeholders have a big incentive to come back to the table,” he said.

Roberts seemed to hold out hope for that. “As you know, we have not been reluctant to support ANWR bills in the past,” Roberts wrote, “and we certainly have vigorously supported (abandoned mine lands) reform in this session of Congress.”

Reps. Nick Rahall, D-W.V., and Robert Ney, R-Ohio, have introduced legislation that would allow transfers from the Abandoned Mine Lands Fund to cover any shortfalls in the miners’ Combined Benefit Fund. The UMWA backs that bill. But the language added to the ANWR bill was too uncertain, Roberts said.

“If companies are to be relieved of liability, there must be provisions to guarantee that the beneficiaries will continue to receive their health benefits,” he wrote.

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, agreed that the Senate probably wouldn’t take up the ANWR bill if it passed the House. He said it was worth passing anyway for the statement it makes.

He said he hadn’t been involved in the redrafting of the bill to include the coal miner benefits.