House Again OKs Oil Drilling in Refuge

Jittery about voters’ sour mood over high gasoline prices less than six months before congressional elections, the Republican-controlled House on Thursday passed an old favorite: legislation seeking to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

The measure, which was approved by a vote of 225 to 201, faces long odds in the Senate, where it has been blocked repeatedly by filibusters. A Senate GOP aide called the measure “DOA” in that chamber.

But House Republicans wanted to return to their districts for Memorial Day able to say they had acted on energy legislation before the summer vacation season began.

As Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.), who voted against the measure, noted: “It’s an election year, isn’t it?”

The drilling measure is the first in a series of energy-related bills being proposed now that pump prices have become a campaign issue in the battle for control of Congress. Both parties have stepped up efforts to highlight their differences on energy policy.

During the debate Thursday, Republicans accused Democrats of opposing efforts to increase domestic fuel supplies.

“Had President Clinton and the Democrats in Congress not blocked exploration in ANWR 10 years ago, a greater supply of American oil could have been available today,” Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) argued, citing Clinton’s 1995 veto of a budget bill that included a drilling plan.

Democrats portrayed the Arctic drilling measure as a sop to Big Oil that would endanger an environmental treasure. “Everyone knows this bill is dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate,” said Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.). “If the Republicans are serious about energy security, they would offer up real solutions -- like increasing alternative fuels and making our cars and light trucks more fuel-efficient.”

GOP leaders were eager to put Democrats on the record in advance of the fall elections, though 30 Republicans joined 170 Democrats and one independent in opposing the drilling.

The measure was supported by 198 Republicans and 27 Democrats, including all the Republicans in the California delegation and two of its Democrats -- Reps. Dennis Cardoza of Atwater and Jim Costa of Fresno. The rest of the California Democrats were opposed.

Although the House has previously voted to authorize drilling in the refuge, GOP leaders predicted that with gas prices in many parts of the country now above $3 a gallon, voters would pay closer attention this time.

“This is about the law of supply and demand,” said Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas). “By increasing oil supply here in the U.S., we can impact rising energy costs in the long run and decrease our dependency on foreign sources of energy.”

Drilling opponents contended Arctic oil would take years to reach the market and even then would have a negligible effect on prices.

Opening a portion of the refuge, which comprises more than 19 million acres in Alaska’s northeast corner, to energy exploration has long been among the nation’s most contentious environmental issues. President Bush has pushed for allowing the drilling since taking office, calling it critical to national security and economic growth.

Proponents have repeatedly tried to pass the drilling measure, attaching it to budget and defense bills and seeking to entice more lawmakers to vote for it by offering to use government royalties from energy production for such things as home-heating subsidies and aid to the steel industry.

Federal estimates say the equivalent of 10 billion barrels of oil lies beneath the refuge’s tundra, though critics argue that far less is economically recoverable. The U.S. consumes about 20 million barrels of oil a day.

Many Democrats and some Republicans advocated conservation measures, such as tougher miles-per-gallon rules for cars.

“Astonishingly, this Congress has not voted on a single conservation measure since gasoline hit $3 a gallon,” said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.).

But House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy), the drilling measure’s chief sponsor, ridiculed Democrats for promoting energy-saving technology without considering an urgent need to produce more domestic oil.

“Your response to everything has been ‘no,’ ” he said. “You’ve got this pie-in-the-sky [idea] that we’re going to invent a 100-mile-per-gallon carburetor, and all of a sudden our problems are going to go away.”