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House backs oil drilling in Alaskan refuge

Posted on: Monday, 19 December 2005, 12:07 CST

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday approved opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling.

The House approved the measure when it voted 308-106 in favor of a defense spending bill that contained the ANWR drilling language.

Giving oil companies access to the refuge's possible 10 billion barrels of crude oil is a key part of the Bush administration's national energy plan to increase U.S. petroleum supplies and cut America's oil imports.

Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, noted that majorities in the House and Senate have voted in favor of ANWR drilling only to be "frustrated" by minority-party Democrats who used procedural tactics to block Senate passage.

The initiative is expected to be debated by the Senate this week, where it is likely to face stiff opposition from pro-environmental Democrats and possibly some moderate Republicans.

"The defense bill should be about delivering equipment and support to our troops. Instead, it is being used to deliver a multi-billion bonanza to oil companies," said Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

The administration believes ANWR oil production could eventually reach 1 million barrels a day. However, drilling opponents want the refuge protected and say that raising vehicle fuel standards for new cars, mini-vans and sport utility vehicles could save the same amount of oil.

ANWR is home to caribou, polar bears, migratory birds and other wildlife. About 1.5 million acres of the refuge's coastal plain would be opened to drilling under the current congressional plan.

Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska pushed to get the drilling plan included in the annual defense budget because it was the only major bill moving through the Congress that ANWR could hitch a ride on.

His state would get half the estimated $10 billion in bids that energy companies would pay for the right to drill in ANWR if oil prices were around $50 a barrel, according to government estimates. The federal government would get the other half.

Democrats said the Pentagon's annual budget bill was not the place for such a controversial policy decision to be settled.

Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey of New York said the ANWR language was "a measure so contentious and wrong-headed they (Republicans) had to hide it behind our courageous troops to get it done."

If Congress opened ANWR to drilling, the refuge's oil would not flow into market for 10 years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Once the refuge reached peak production in 2025, its oil would shave about 2 percentage points off the share oil imports would have in meeting domestic demand, the EIA said. That would moderate U.S. oil imports to a forecast 58 percent of total demand in 2025, equal to current import levels.

LINKS:

*Oil firms may pay $10 bln to drill in ANWR

*US Senate backs drilling in Alaska refuge

*Some Republicans shun Alaska oil drilling

*House panel OKs Alaska oil drilling plan

*FACTBOX-Key facts about ANWR land, oil

*CHRONOLOGY-Congress debates ANWR drilling

*Reuters top energy news

Source: REUTERS

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