CORRECTED-Senate panel OKs oil drilling in Arctic refuge

Please read in the fourth paragraph … All Republicans on
the committee, except Gordon Smith of Oregon, voted … instead
of … All Republicans on the committee voted

A corrected version follows.

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Energy Committee
voted on Wednesday to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge to oil drilling as part of a broad budget bill to fund
the federal government.

Tapping the refuge’s billions of barrels of crude oil is a
key part of the Bush administration’s national energy plan to
boost domestic production. Environmental groups and many
Democrats oppose drilling, saying that instead of threatening
the habitat of wildlife in ANWR, lawmakers should look at ways
to cut oil consumption with more fuel-efficient vehicle
standards.

The refuge, which is about the size of South Carolina,
sprawls across more than 19 million acres in northeastern
Alaska. It is home to polar bears, musk oxen, caribou and
migratory birds.

The energy panel approved the ANWR drilling provision,
13-9. All Republicans on the committee, except Gordon Smith of
Oregon, voted in favor of the plan. Democrats Mary Landrieu of
Louisiana and Daniel Akaka of Hawaii also voted for drilling.

“Opening ANWR is sound public policy that would serve the
country well many years into the future,” said Pete Domenici,
the Republican chairman of the committee. The oil produced from
the wildlife refuge “would provide some cushion” for U.S.
supplies, he said.

The legislative proposal will be folded into a much bigger
budget bill to fund the federal government, which the Senate
Budget Committee is scheduled to vote on next week and the full
U.S. Senate the following week.

Republican leaders decided to attach the Alaska drilling
plan to budget legislation because under Senate rules the giant
spending bill cannot be filibustered. They argue the drilling
language can be in the budget bill because it will raise an
estimated $2.4 billion in leasing revenue.

However, Democrats said they plan to object to the drilling
language when the bill goes to the Senate floor, claiming the
drilling plan sets policy more than raises revenue. Democrat
Byron Dorgan of North Dakota said the Republicans were
“short-circuiting the process” by attaching ANWR to a budget
bill.

The Senate Energy Committee also rejected a proposal from
Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon that would have prevented Alaskan
oil production from being exported to China or other foreign
markets.

Under the drilling plan, ANWR’s 1.5 million-acre coastal
plain would be opened for energy exploration. As much as 10.4
billion barrels of crude could be recovered from the refuge’s
coastal plain, according to government estimates.

The Interior Department would be required to hold two lease
sales before October 1, 2010, to lease tracts in ANWR to oil
companies.

Opening ANWR would have no impact on replacing the shutdown
oil production in the Gulf of Mexico caused by hurricanes
Katrina and Rita.

If Congress approved drilling in the Arctic refuge this
year, oil would not begin flowing until about 2015, according
to the Energy Information Administration.

A coalition of moderate Republicans and most Democrats in
the Senate in the past successfully blocked attempts to add
ANWR drilling to energy legislation. However, the House of
Representatives has repeatedly voted in favor of opening the
Alaskan refuge to energy development.