High cost of oil could serve as wake-up call for anti-ANWR forces

Kay Cashman

Oil and gas consultant Roger Herrera told PNA Feb. 15 that the high cost of heating oil, gasoline and diesel has served as a wake-up call to many members of the U.S. Congress who traditionally have not supported oil exploration in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“New England state senators traditionally opposed to opening the coastal plain — Democrats and Republicans — are now complaining about high heating oil costs. ... We cannot afford to lock up that coastal plain. ... Members of Congress seem to be putting two and two together and coming up with the right answer which is four — we need more domestic oil,” said Herrera. ... “The talk in the Senate right now is to put in a bill that would allow us to do 3-dimensional seismic in the coastal plain.”

Brian Malnak, professional staff member of the U.S. Senate’s committee on energy and natural resources, confirmed Feb. 18 that Sen. Frank Murkowski is “discussing re-submitting the 3-D bill we had proposed a while back.

“There is tremendous concern back here about the escalating costs of heating oil and crude oil, as well as our reliance on OPEC to determine what those prices are going to be,” said Malnak. The energy committee has scheduled a hearing Feb. 24 on the issue.

Senate members, said Malnak, are seriously looking at increasing domestic production of oil as a solution to the problem. The Clinton administration, however, is instead trying to put political pressure on foreign oil producers to cut production.

“Mr. Clinton is waxing eloquently on the problems associated with the high cost of oil,” said Herrera. “He says he wants to sort out the problem and is apparently going to send Mr. Richardson to Saudi Arabia next week to sort out the Saudis.” (See related article on page A1.)

Herrera said to expect the energy secretary’s visit to succeed “is totally naive. America doesn’t have that much to offer those countries anymore.”