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Arctic drilling Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020502/pl_nm/energy_congress_alaska_dc_1http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020502/pl_nm/energy_congress_alaska_dc_1
Arctic Drilling May Get Second Chance in Congress
Thu May 2, 6:28 PM ET
By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A seeming parliamentary error by Democrats may result in enough votes to produce a final energy bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling, Senate Republicans said on Thursday.
A Republican proposal for drilling in the pristine refuge, which stretches over 19 million acres in northern Alaska, was thought to be dead after the Democratic-controlled Senate approved a broad energy bill last month that would keep ANWR closed.
Energy legislation cleared by the Republican-led House last year would allow drilling in ANWR. President Bush (news - web sites) also has endorsed giving oil companies access to the refuge.
It was widely thought that congressional negotiations to work out a compromise bill were certain to kill the ANWR provision because of intense opposition from Senate Democrats.
However, the fate of ANWR may again be up in the air because of the 17 Senate negotiators chosen for the conference committee, Republican aides said.
BREAUX TIPS BALANCE TOWARD ANWR
The selection of negotiators "appears" to be an error by the Democratic leadership, a Republican aide said.
That's because of the 17 senators named as negotiators on the compromise bill, nine voted in favor of drilling in ANWR when the Senate last month refused, 54 to 46, to give access to oil companies.
As a result, ANWR drilling supporters would have a one-vote majority among the Senate's bill negotiators, the Republican aide said.
The Senate picked eight Democrats, eight Republicans and independent James Jeffords (news - web sites) of Vermont to serve on the Senate-House panel. Jeffords and every Democratic negotiator -- except for Louisiana Sen. John Breaux -- voted against drilling in ANWR.
He could not explain why the Democratic leadership would seemingly stack the conferees in favor of ANWR drilling, based on their past votes. "You need to ask leadership why they did it," the spokesman said.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was not available to comment.
A MAMMOTH BILL
The wide-ranging bill has mushroomed to more than 1,000 pages, covering everything from incentives for clean coal technology to boosting the amount of ethanol used to make cleaner-burning gasoline.
House-Senate negotiators are expected to begin work on a compromise bill soon.
The following Senate Democrats were named to the negotiating panel:
* Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico
* Majority Whip Harry Reid of Nevada
* Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana
* John Rockefeller of West Virginia
* Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut
* John Breaux of Louisiana
* John Kerry of Massachusetts
* Ernest Hollings of South Carolina
The following Senate Republicans were named to the panel:
* Minority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi
* Frank Murkowski of Alaska
* Pete Domenici of New Mexico
* Chuck Grassley of Iowa
* Don Nickles of Oklahoma
* Larry Craig of Idaho
* Craig Thomas of Wyoming
* Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado.
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