ANWR camp awaits Senate energy bill

Steve Sutherlin, Petroleum News associate editor

It’s virtually certain that the U.S. Senate’s version of an energy bill won’t contain a provision to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, but it appears that the Senate will pass a bill, and that’s hopeful news for exploration supporters, said Roger Herrera, Arctic Power’s Washington, D.C., coordinator.

“Debate in the Senate will not involve our issue at all,” Herrera told Petroleum News June 11.

But the House’s energy bill does contain a proposal to open the coastal plain of ANWR for exploration. Once the Senate passes its own version, the bills will be combined in conference. Ideally, the blended version would approve ANWR drilling, Herrera said.

“The ANWR camp is optimistic,” he said.

Earlier in the year, it appeared the Senate might not pass an energy bill at all, Herrera said, but now debate is far enough along that the prognosis for a bill is good. He said the Senate has reached agreement on key points such as ethanol-use requirements, nuclear plant subsidies and conservation measures targeting a savings of one million barrels of oil a day.

Senate Floor debate on the energy bill raged until June 13, but the matter has been tabled to allow the Senate to debate Medicare reforms, according to Kristen Pugh, press secretary to Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

Pugh said the Senate would return to the energy bill debate sometime following the July 4 recess. She said Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici’s goal is to have the bill ready to go to conference by the Thanksgiving break.