GOP Readying Backup Plan for Refuge Drilling

Conspicuous by its absence in the sweeping energy bill that President Bush has championed and will sign today is his top energy priority: opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling.

But the fight over the future of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will flare anew in Congress next month, with drilling advocates saying they have their best chance in more than two decades of making it happen.

Tapping what is believed to be at least 10 billion barrels of oil within the refuge’s 1.5-million-acre coastal plain has been the centerpiece of Bush’s energy agenda dating to his 2000 presidential bid. Bush has said the oil is important to the nation’s national and economic security.

But the idea that drilling proponents might win has produced outrage among environmentalists, who see the region as a pristine area where caribou, polar bears and other wildlife thrive and should be protected.

A coalition of most Democrats and a handful of moderate Republicans repeatedly has thwarted attempts to open the refuge to energy development by use of the Senate filibuster.

“If we had put [Arctic drilling] in the bill, we wouldn’t be here,” said Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), celebrating passage of the energy bill that Bush plans to sign in a ceremony in Albuquerque. The bill never could have mustered the 60 votes needed to overcome a certain Senate filibuster over the proposal, he said.

But drilling advocates have a backup plan that is expected to unfold in mid-September.

Domenici said he would include a provision authorizing drilling in the refuge as part of a budget procedure that is immune to filibuster. A similar maneuver is being planned in the House, although the final strategy is still being worked out.

Unlike normal legislation, the budget process is not subject to filibuster, so only 51 votes would be needed in the Senate for it to clear Congress and be signed into law. Just such a tactic was used a decade ago when Congress approved drilling in the refuge as part of the budget process, only to see the bill vetoed by then-President Clinton.

From Associated Press

The Week Ahead

Today

* President Bush signs the energy bill in Albuquerque.

Tuesday

* The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee meets to set interest rates.

* Quarterly earnings reports expected from Walt Disney Co. and Cisco Systems Inc.

* The Labor Department reports U.S. productivity for July.

Wednesday

* Earnings reports expected from News Corp. and Federated Department Stores Inc.

Thursday

* Former WorldCom Chief Financial Officer Scott D. Sullivan is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Manhattan.

* The Commerce Department reports preliminary July retail sales and business inventories for June.

* Quarterly earnings reports expected from Dell Inc., Kohl’s Corp. and Target Corp.

Friday

* The Commerce Department reports the nation’s trade deficit for June.

* The University of Michigan releases its consumer sentiment index for August.