Arctic refuge drilling to get new vote in House

The House of Representatives is planning to this week vote yet again on opening Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

Drilling in ANWR, a cornerstone of President Bush’s energy blueprint, is the only one of three Republican energy proposals that will come to a vote before lawmakers leave for a holiday recess at week’s end, Majority Leader John Boehner said Tuesday.

A vote on opening about 2,000 acres of ANWR to drilling was likely on Thursday, House aides said.

A proposal to give companies incentives to expand refining capacity will be delayed, and the fate of a bill requiring the administration to rethink vehicle fuel efficiency standards was unclear, Boehner told reporters.

In the Senate, Alaska’s two Republican lawmakers said they would continue to push to advance ANWR drilling.

Sen. Ted Stevens, chairman of the Commerce Committee, said ANWR drilling could be included in a package of energy legislation that Republicans are drafting for possible consideration this summer.

No Senate action for now
The Senate will not take up any energy-related provisions this week, Majority Leader Bill Frist said.

Both the House and the Senate have passed proposals to drill on a limited number of acres in ANWR. But both bodies have failed to pass the same bill approving ANWR, which has prevented the proposal from advancing.

Tapping the refuge’s potential 16 billion barrels of crude is a key part of the Bush administration’s national energy plan to boost domestic oil supplies and reduce U.S. reliance on petroleum imports.

Environmental groups argue that there is not enough oil to justify destroying the habitat for ANWR’s polar bears, caribou and other wildlife.

Oil companies counter that advanced drilling technology would allow them to explore for crude without harming the land.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said she has asked Democrats to support a plan to open ANWR that would also require an increase in corporate average fuel economy standards for auto makers, otherwise known as CAFE.

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“I’ve been going to them,” Murkowski told reporters. “I’ve had no one slam the door in my face,” though there have been no solid commitments from Democrats.

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Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, reiterated that ANWR drilling was a “non-starter” no matter what. Even though he has pushed for CAFE standard increases, Durbin said, he would oppose combining fuel standard increases with ANWR drilling.

“I don’t think that is an honest bargain,” he told reporters.

Not tied to Gulf drilling
Some Republicans had hoped to attach ANWR drilling to legislation that would open nearly 3 million acres of federal waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico to energy exploration.

But a bill that would open the area off Florida to drilling has run aground in the Senate because of opposition from Florida lawmakers, said Sen. Pete Domenici, chairman of the Energy Committee and the bill’s sponsor.

The original proposal would have opened 2.9 million acres in the Outer Continental Shelf 100 miles off Florida to development, but Florida lawmakers have said they will oppose the bill unless it bans drilling less than 125 miles off the coast, Domenici said.

“You can’t put together a very viable package” under those limitations, Domenici said.

Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, has threatened to filibuster the bill -- or talk it to death -- if it comes to a full Senate vote.

Republicans say U.S. consumers need the energy to head off a supply crunch, and that the area’s 7.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could heat nearly 6 million homes for 15 years.