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Environmentalists concerned ANWR lost, admonish drilling advocates Drilling advocates have said little about ANWR since Sept. 11; defense bill contains NPR-A money, nothing for ANWR Kay Cashman PNA Publisher
As PNA went to press on the morning of Sept. 20, it was rumored that the Defense Authorization Bill being debated in the U.S. Senate Friday, Sept. 21, contained a clause allowing drilling inside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In anticipation of this, Canada reportedly delivered more than 10,000 letters from its citizens to President George W. Bush, asking him not to push for development in ANWR.
PNA sources in the U.S. Senate, White House and Arctic Power’s Washington office denied the rumor, saying there was nothing about ANWR in either defense bill.
“Congress just got back in session yesterday. It is our understanding that it has not been decided what they will do about ANWR. There is more important business at hand. They’re not going to take up anything that’s going to create controversy, because they must stand united now. … It’s not a time to elevate issues we are divided on,” an Arctic Power spokeswoman based in Washington, D.C., told PNA Sept. 20.
A source close to Sen. Ted Stevens told PNA on Sept. 20, “I am not aware of any language in the Defense Authorization Bill — or the Defense Appropriations Bill that Sen. Stevens is working on right now — that would open ANWR. There is money for the NPR-A to help get the EIS going for the next round of leasing in 2004, but nothing for ANWR.”
Environmentalists speak out Environmentalists began speaking out on the ANWR issue the day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, warning drilling advocates not to take advantage of national security concerns spurred by the terrorist attack to push for drilling.
“What the environmental community is most nervous about is ANWR,” Oregon environmental activist Andy Kerr told OregonLive in an interview following the Sept. 11 attack. Kerr, who led battles to protect Northwest old-growth timber, said, “There are those who say, ‘Now we’ve got to drill in the Arctic,’ who will advance their own agenda when it coincides with the war agenda.”
“At the Alaska Wilderness League, Adam Kolton said repeatedly that it is too soon to tell where energy policy will fit into the Congressional agenda, and it would be self-serving and insensitive for anyone to ‘use this national tragedy to advance an agenda,’” Greenwire, Environment & Energy Daily, reported in a Sept. 17 commentary.
Other environmental leaders expressed concern that they had lost the battle against drilling. A Sept. 19 Washington Post article quoted Debra J. Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters, as saying, “The vote count (before Sept. 11) was close, but we felt we could have won on the floor. If it moves, it is hard in the face of an argument about national security to vote against additional resource extraction.”
Drilling advocates mute Drilling advocates, however, have said very little, or nothing, about ANWR since the Sept. 11 disaster.
With 60 percent of the United State’s oil coming from foreign countries — one quarter of that from the Middle East — the White House is expected to push some type of energy independence measure in the interest of national security, but when and what, PNA’s Washington, D.C. sources couldn’t say on Sept. 20.
Interior Department spokesman Mark Pfeifle gave a brief statement to the Washington Times on Sept. 18, saying that the Bush administration is “redoubling” its commitment to “implement a long-term energy strategy that both protects our environment and increases our energy security with increased domestic energy supplies.”
Interior’s Drue Pearce and Cam Toohey sidestepped the ANWR issue at their Sept. 20 Resource Development Council breakfast speeches in Anchorage. Pearce said simply, “We will see energy as an important part of the overall plan.”
Toohey said, “Nothing is the same. We had a well-planned strategy for the Senate, but now the unthinkable has happened. It’s time for the nation to come together in one voice to combat a new enemy, terrorism.”
However, the Washington Times reported on Sept. 18 that Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., threatened to filibuster an energy bill which contained an ANWR clause. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., also threatened to block such a bill.
So when is energy legislation expected to surface?
Before the terrorist attacks, the current Congressional session was expected to continue to the end of October and possibly as late as Thanksgiving. But White House sources say the president would like Congress to “attend to critical issues” and adjourn early.
They won’t say if an energy bill is considered a critical issue.
If Congress does adjourn without passing an energy bill, it is not scheduled to convene again until February. In the interim, however, it can be called back into special session by the president.
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