Bush to Seek Alaska Oil Drilling

Bush Looking Anew for Alaska Oil Drilling

BY H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Republican gains in the Senate could give President Bush his best chance yet to achieve his No. 1 energy priority - opening an oil-rich but environmentally sensitive Alaska wildlife refuge to drilling.

If he is successful, it would be a stinging defeat for environmentalists and an energy triumph that eluded Bush his first four years in the White House.

Republicans in the House and Senate said this week they plan to push for Alaska refuge drilling legislation early next year, and they predict success, given the 55-44-1 GOP Senate majority in the next Congress.

'It's probably the best chance we've had,' Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chairman of the House Resources Committee and a vocal drilling advocate, said in an interview.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he will press to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as part of the government's budget deliberations early in 2005. That would enable drilling proponents to skirt an otherwise certain Democratic-led filibuster that would be difficult to overcome.

This article seems to point to the fact that ANWR has been removed as a consideration. Seems like those 'nasty liberal environmentalists' still have some clout, even among those that vote guns, gays, and God. 'One of the most controversial measures - opening up Alaskan wilderness lands to oil drilling - won't be included when Congress takes another crack at the bill, according to Barton. A Democratic spokesman for the Senate Energy Committee said last week that removing that provision eliminates a 'huge boulder out of the road on the energy bill.'