Now that President Bush is signing into law a $12.5 billion energy bill recently approved by Congress, Alaska’s oil patch is turning to prospects for oil drilling on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge clearing Congress this year.
A provision that would allow the controversial exploration and development is quietly biding its time in a mammoth budget bill expected to emerge from committee in September.
Bush, who favors ANWR drilling, has asked Congress to present him with legislation that would enable America to tap its largest potential source of onshore crude oil reserves.
Environmentalists and others, who oppose ANWR drilling, say it will harm wildlife within the refuge.
Exploration proponents say responsible development, including winter-only drilling, easily allay such worries.
Climbing oil prices a factor
Steadily climbing oil prices along with the nation’s growing dependence on foreign oil, meanwhile, is slowly winning over the American public.
“I think the environmentalists see the handwriting on the wall. They are going to lose their major cash cow,” ANWR lobbyist Jerry Hood told Petroleum News Aug. 1. “The American public understands ANWR better than ever, and we’re in good shape.”
Hood said anti-drilling forces are conducting a “Don’t drill on me” bus tour through friendly states in the Northeast this month, aimed primarily at raising money.
Hood belongs to a small group of Alaskans who are helping Alaska’s congressional delegation promote oil development on the Arctic coastal plain in Congress.
Like Bush, they believe development on a mere 2,000 acres of the coastal plain could not only benefit the state but also deliver 1.5 million to 2 million barrels per day of crude oil to the Lower 48 in relatively short order. This new source of oil could significantly reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign crude and potentially stabilize oil prices.
The United States currently consumes oil at a rate of 21 million barrels per day, but produces only 8 million bpd, according to Rep. Mike Barton, R-Texas.
Though some anti-ANWR drilling rhetoric surfaced in the energy debate this summer, prospects for the legislation passing Congress are still as favorable as they were last spring, according to Roger Herrera, a longtime oil industry analyst and pro-ANWR lobbyist.
Both houses of Congress approved a compromise $2.57 trillion budget resolution April 28 that included ANWR drilling. In the Senate, the measure passed on a 52-47 vote, while the house endorsed it 214-211.
“We have no reason to believe the votes we had have left us,” said Elliott Bundy, a spokesman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. “We think we are in a good position to get the measure through the budget reconciliation process, which can be long and torturous.”
“It’s a big bill, and it’s not going to live or die because of ANWR,” Herrera said. “A lot of controversial issues are addressed in it. For example, the proposed update to Medicaid, which calls for significant changes, comes out in mid-September. Until that comes out, its impact on the politicians is completely unknown. We’ll have to wait and see what happens to that ‘hot potato.’”
State gearing up
The State of Alaska, meanwhile, is also gearing up for the pro-ANWR drilling campaign. Key campaigner John Katz, state special counsel, is experiencing a sense of déjà vu, one he has felt virtually every year since 1979, when Congress began to look hard at ANWR in the context of its deliberations on ANILCA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, he told Petroleum News Aug 2.
Both Hood and Katz, draw parallels, however, between this fall and 1995.
That year, pro-ANWR forces made their first bid to open ANWR through a resolution in the budget-reconciliation process. The ANWR measure passed Congress, but President Clinton vetoed it.
Still, the ANWR language may or may not end up being somewhat different than in 1995, Katz said, because of the application of certain procedural rules.
“Of course, there is always the question of whether there will be a budget reconciliation bill. Two of the last three years there hasn’t been,” Katz said.
Murkowski and Alaska’s senior Sen. Ted Stevens, also a Republican, and U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, fought for ANWR drilling all spring and will continue the fight this fall. But don’t expect smooth sailing, Hood said.
What should we expect?
“Anything,” said Hood. “Anything and everything is possible.”
