News
Service March 19, 2003
March 14, 2003
New York Times
By DAVID FIRESTONE
WASHINGTON, March 13 As the Senate neared a close vote on whether to allow oil
drilling in the Alaska wilderness, each side in the debate expressed confidence
that it would prevail.
Oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is among the highest
priorities of the Bush administration, and the Senate's switch to Republican
control after the November elections has put the drilling plan in closer reach
than last year, when the Senate rejected it, 54 to 46.
Supporters are seeking to persuade wavering senators with an argument that
increased domestic oil production is needed more than ever on the approach of a
possible war with Iraq and with gasoline prices rising sharply.
"In the last few months alone, our oil imports from Iraq have
doubled," said Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who is a
leading proponent of drilling. "We're paying Saddam Hussein billions of
dollars for gasoline and aviation fuel to send our aircraft carriers and troops
to fight him. That logic does not make sense as an energy policy."
Republicans in Congress are preparing to bring up the drilling plan as part of
an overall budget process, a parliamentary technique that would prevent the
Democrats from blocking it with a filibuster. By doing so, Republicans ensure
that they need only a simple majority to approve the measure, rather than the 60
votes necessary to break a filibuster.
It is unclear, however, whether they have that simple majority, and lobbyists
for drilling and against it worked furiously this week to court potential swing
votes. Of the 51 Senate Republicans, 8 have already said they will vote against
opening the refuge to drilling, but 5 Democrats have said they will support it.
That gives drilling supporters a solid 48 votes, both sides acknowledge. Some
Republican officials say they have secured a 49th vote and are in reach of the
50th vote that will allow them to pass the measure, with the tie-breaking
support of Vice President Dick Cheney. They have not identified the 49th vote.
"It's kind of even-steven right now, but we think we can count votes better
than our opponents, and we're pretty confident," said Roger Herrera,
a consultant for Arctic Power, a pro-drilling lobbying group financed by the
State of Alaska and oil companies. "We think we can win on the merits, but
it should be pretty exciting."
Democrats and environmental groups, who say drilling will damage the habitat of
several wilderness species, say advocates of drilling are exaggerating their
support and are unlikely to grow beyond 48 votes. But they acknowledge that the
coming vote is likely to be much closer than the 54-to-46 one last year.
"The margin is razor-thin," said Melinda Pierce, a lobbyist for the
Sierra Club, who has been working to persuade senators to defeat the drilling
proposal. "We still think we have the votes to defeat it, but I'm not
taking any vote for granted."
Opponents of drilling have identified 52 senators who either voted against
drilling in the past or said they would do so, said Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman
for Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat who opposes the plan.
But Republican officials said 4 of those 52 Senators Mark Pryor and Blanche
Lincoln of Arkansas, both Democrats, and Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Gordon H.
Smith of Oregon, both Republicans were being heavily lobbied to support the
plan.
Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, introduced an amendment in
the Budget Committee today to strip the drilling provision from the budget
resolution and have it come up on its own later. Such a move would allow
Democrats to filibuster the plan. But the amendment was quickly defeated by the
committee's Republican majority.
"It's unfortunate that the drilling proponents are pushing for oil drilling
in one of our nation's natural treasures and using a back-door process to
achieve that goal," Mr. Feingold said. "The coastal plain of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge deserves more careful management, and if we
don't protect it, we jeopardize both the plain itself and all its scenic and
habitat values, and we threaten existing wilderness previously protected by
Congress."
Senator Don Nickles, Republican of Oklahoma and chairman of the committee, said
drilling would create thousands of jobs and reduce the nation's dependence on
foreign oil.
A spokesman for Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, said passing the
drilling plan in the Senate was one of the Republicans' highest priorities.
The plan would pass without difficulty in the House, with its solid Republican
majority, but members said they were reluctant to vote on the measure without
knowing whether it would move through the Senate. Today the House Budget
Committee approved a budget resolution that assumed more than $1 billion in tax
revenues would come from Alaskan oil production.
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