Arctic drilling gets new life in Senate

WASHINGTON — A last-minute deal to secure the vote of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., on a $2.8 trillion budget plan has given new life to the Republican drive to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling.

The budget blueprint for fiscal 2007, which will begin in October, includes a $10 billion Gulf Coast restoration fund that would be financed from the leasing of Arctic-refuge drilling rights, revenue from new drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf of the Gulf of Mexico and further sales of the broadcast spectrum.

With that provision in hand, Landrieu cast the only Democratic vote for the budget resolution, which squeaked through Thursday night, 51-49.

"It's not easy being alone on anything. I don't relish this position," Landrieu said. "But, at times, it's necessary."

Republicans, who have been trying to open the refuge to drilling for more than 10 years, hope that by explicitly linking oil drilling to Gulf Coast restoration, they can prompt some Democrats to drop their opposition.

Under the Senate plan, the money from oil leases could be used for coastal-restoration projects in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that have long been sought by environmentalists. The fund also could be tapped to rebuild levees damaged last year by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

But it is unclear whether the political equation has shifted since December, when moderate Republicans — led by Rep. Charles Bass, R-N.H. — forced their leaders to take Arctic drilling out of a 2006 budget-cutting measure to secure their votes. Bass has warned House budget writers that nothing has changed.

In December, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., rounded up enough allies to derail a bid by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to attach the plan to open a 1.5 million-acre stretch of the refuge to a bill funding Iraq and Afghanistan military operations.

The issue has presented Republican leaders with a quandary for years. A majority in the House and Senate supports drilling, but the measure does not have the votes to clear Congress for President Bush's signature.

Lacking the 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, Senate leaders for two years have tried to attach a drilling measure to a budget resolution. By doing so, subsequent legislation to open the Arctic would be protected from a filibuster under congressional budget rules.

Drilling supporters say ANWR will give the country more domestic-oil production, so fewer barrels will have to be imported. Environmentalists have cited an Energy Department report that concluded ANWR oil would only slightly affect gasoline prices and only marginally lower the growth of imports by 2025.

Material from The Seattle Times archives is included in this report.