Panel OKs Arctic Drilling

A House panel on Tuesday threw its support behind oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, giving President Bush at least a temporary victory on one of the most contentious elements of his national energy plan.

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, stepped up efforts to pass tougher fuel-economy standards for sport-utility vehicles, citing the conclusions of a draft of a study supporting the feasibility of an increase in the miles-per-gallon rules.

Opponents of drilling in the Arctic refuge said that Tuesday’s vote by the House Resources Committee comes as no surprise and predicted that its endorsement of Bush’s proposal will be overturned on the House floor or in the Senate.

“The Resources Committee has shown time and time again that it’s radically out of step with American public opinion,” said Jim Waltman, director of refuges and wildlife for the Wilderness Society.

Adam Kolton, Arctic campaign director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said: “If there was ever a sign that the administration isn’t serious about passing balanced energy policy, it was this legislation. There is no way the American people will ever accept legislation that would allow drilling in America’s Serengeti, our last great wilderness.”

Democrats said they believe they can muster enough votes from moderate Republicans to strip out the Arctic provision in the GOP-run House and certainly in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The House in recent weeks has voted to oppose drilling in the Great Lakes and in national monuments. On Tuesday, the Senate voted to ban Great Lakes drilling.

Still, Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska), a drilling advocate, said after the House committee vote: “Obviously, reports of ANWR’s demise [have] been greatly exaggerated.”

The 30-to-19 committee vote--largely along party lines with a handful of Democrats joining all of the panel’s Republicans to support the Arctic drilling--came as lawmakers rushed to meet the GOP leadership’s deadline of approving an energy bill before the August recess. Among other things, the bill includes royalty relief for offshore oil and gas drilling, a provision that Democrats decried as a “$7.4-billion royalty holiday” for energy companies.

A second House panel today is scheduled to take up a separate energy measure that is expected to touch off party and regional splits on such issues as tougher fuel economy standards for SUVs and whether California and other states should be required to add ethanol to gasoline.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers from California are seeking an amendment that would allow states to produce gasoline without ethanol as long as it meets anti-pollution rules. California officials contend that if the state is required to use ethanol, it will increase prices at the pump.

But Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christie Whitman has written a letter opposing the effort, saying it would “further proliferate the patchwork of different fuel requirements, which in turn could lead to fuel shortages and price spikes.”

Bush has advocated oil and gas exploration on 1.5 million acres of the 19.6-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the northeast corner of Alaska as a way to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 6 billion to 16 billion barrels of oil can be recovered from beneath the tundra, though opponents argue that only about 3.2 billion barrels--enough to meet the nation’s energy needs for about six months--can be drawn out economically.

White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said that the administration was “very encouraged” by Tuesday’s actions by the Resources Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee to promote the president’s energy initiatives.

Rep. James V. Hansen (R-Utah), chairman of the Resources Committee, said the vote signaled “a growing realization among Republicans and Democrats that increased energy production must be a cornerstone of our national energy policy.”

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), a leading advocate of drilling in the Arctic reserve, said: “Right now, we are at the will and whim of OPEC. We must produce more of our energy within our own borders. If we do not, jobs will be lost, money out of the taxpayers’ pockets will go overseas and we will be putting this country at the jeopardy of OPEC.”

Rep. Calvin M. Dooley of Visalia, one of five Democrats who joined Republicans in voting against removing the Arctic drilling provision from the energy bill, said, “I wasn’t ready at this point to say ANWR should be off-limits to production.”

Opponents of Arctic drilling contended that the nation could reduce its dependence on foreign oil much more by increasing fuel economy standards on SUVs and other vehicles.

They sought to bolster their argument by citing a National Academy of Sciences study suggesting that tougher miles-per-gallon rules are feasible. A draft of the report, which leaked Tuesday, said that automobile fuel economy could be boosted by as much as 11 mpg using the latest engine technologies, Associated Press reported. The Bush administration, which has been looking to the study for direction, had no comment, noting that the study has yet to be completed.

Passenger cars currently must meet a “corporate average fuel economy” standard of 27.5 mpg, while light trucks, a category that includes SUVs, minivans and pickups, are permitted to meet an average of 20.7 mpg. Federal transportation officials said at a Senate hearing that the first opportunity they could increase fuel standards would be for the 2004 models.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee voted last week to require makers of SUVs to save 5 billion gallons of gasoline from 2004 to 2010. But a number of the panel’s Democrats, contending that the savings would amount to one day’s oil supply a year, plan to seek to increase the standard to 40 mpg by early next decade.

Meanwhile, Judicial Watch, a conservative government-watchdog group that gained prominence by repeatedly suing the Clinton administration, filed suit seeking to compel Vice President Dick Cheney to release documents on the workings of the administration’s energy task force.