here we go again...drilling in ANWR

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if at first you don't succeed, try 897 more times...

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/26/MNGPEGT2O21.DTL

 

GOP to renew push to drill for Arctic oil

Selling points are higher prices and tensions over Iran

Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau

 

Thursday, January 26, 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

Washington -- Republican leaders, after losing a bitter fight over drilling in

the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge late last year, plan to bring the

contentious issue before Congress again this year.

 

Pro-drilling lawmakers now are making a new argument, saying rising oil prices

and fears of an oil shock sparked by the escalating dispute over Iran's nuclear

program provide more reasons to open the Alaskan refuge.

 

" I can't imagine that anybody would expect with the Iranian situation that we

will sit by and not take another shot at (drilling in the refuge), " Sen. Pete

Domenici, R-N.M, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a

longtime champion of drilling, said during a speech Wednesday.

 

" We've got to find a way, " Domenici said. " We think there's one out there. "

 

But opponents of drilling argue that GOP leaders face even tougher odds trying

to approve the measure this year.

 

In November, moderate House Republicans staged a revolt against the drilling

proposal, stripping it from a leadership-sponsored budget bill. A month later,

Senate Democrats and a few Republicans blocked Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens' effort

to authorize drilling by attaching it to a defense spending bill that funded

U.S. troops and hurricane relief.

 

" None of the politics have changed, " said Kevin Curtis, a vice president at the

National Environmental Trust, an environmental group. " Ted Stevens and the

pro-(drilling) folks said that last year was their best shot -- and they didn't

get it.

 

" If anything, everybody has dug in even more, " he said. " Election-year dynamics

almost always break in favor of the environment. Who wants to be out there

running for re-election having despoiled the environment? "

 

Federal lawmakers, Alaska officials, native groups, oil companies and

environmentalists have been battling for more than 25 years over the future of

the refuge's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain. Geologists believe the plain

contains one of the nation's largest untapped oil fields, but it's also the

calving grounds for the Porcupine caribou herd and home to polar bears, musk

oxen and millions of migratory birds.

 

Domenici told reporters after his speech Wednesday that GOP leaders may have

miscalculated by tying drilling to a complex budget bill, which also featured

controversial cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, student loans and other programs.

 

" I'm just going to tell you why (drilling) failed, just plain and simple --

because we had too many things on it, " Domenici said. " ANWR by itself would be

law today if it was (alone) in the budget reconciliation bill. "

 

Domenici said he's now considering whether to tack the drilling provision onto a

new budget bill. The measure would require 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to

override a filibuster. He said it was the best strategy available, although he

added it still would be difficult to pass it.

 

House Republicans also are plotting their own strategy to open the refuge, but

it will be fought by party moderates -- especially those in swing districts that

could be crucial to the GOP's effort to retain its narrow majority in the

November midterm elections.

 

" It certainly will be tough in an election year, " said Jennifer Zuccarelli, a

spokeswoman for Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, chairman of the House Resources

Committee. " But this is a big energy year when you consider our growing foreign

imports, our shaky foreign relations, not to mention rising energy costs. By

keeping (the refuge) locked up, we are not doing anything to help our energy

supply situation. "

 

Republican leaders and the White House are also renewing their efforts to

increase energy production off the nation's coasts, which failed last year.

 

Pombo is considering new hearings on a bill that would end the 23-year-old

moratorium on offshore drilling, allowing drilling for natural gas -- but not

oil -- on about 85 percent of the nation's coastline that is now off-limits.

Pombo is also pushing a plan to give states the ability to opt out of the

moratorium to drill for either oil or gas.

 

Domenici said he wants to allow natural gas drilling in the eastern Gulf of

Mexico, an area dubbed " Area 181 " off the Florida Panhandle. The plan has

aroused fierce opposition from environmental groups and some lawmakers in

Florida and is being closely watched as a test case that could affect California

and other coastal states.

 

Earlier this year the Bush administration issued new maps of state boundaries in

coastal waters, widely viewed as a first step toward new drilling. Lawmakers

expect the White House to offer its own plan for more natural gas drilling in

the eastern gulf.

 

Republican leaders believe the rising costs consumers are paying to heat their

homes this winter will boost their effort to allow more drilling for natural

gas. Domenici said the public's anxiety over Iran's nuclear program could

provide a similar lift for enhancing domestic oil supplies.

 

" We all know what happened when the first Iranian boycott occurred, " he said.

" That was a tiny bit of oil, right? We had lines, people shooting each other in

Brooklyn ... The prices (of oil) are going up again right now. What do you think

will happen if something like that occurs? "

 

However, critics note that drilling in the Alaskan refuge would do nothing in

the short-term to alter oil supplies or prices. Even if drilling were approved

this year, the administration estimates it would take at least seven years

before any oil was produced.

 

 

Countries manufacture bombs and guns

To kill your brother for something that he hasn't even done.

Smog is ruining my lungs, but they aren't sorry they've done wrong,

They hide behind their lies that they're helping everyone.