From:
Vicky Hoover
Sierra Club Alaska Task Force
415)977-5527
[log in to unmask]
Did we say the Arctic Coastal Plain is "safe" for this Congress?  Well --
we said, most likely, but with the Shrub making a big new push to get
Arctic drilling into the final Energy bill -- it's time for all of us to
give our two Senators AND our Congressional representatives a new reminder
that Arctic Refuge oil drilling is UNACCEPTABLE to AMERICA.  Tell the Senate
to STAND FIRM in its good resolution voted on last April.
__________
 President gives ANWR a push
 MURKOWSKI: Bush says he wants drilling plan included in energy bill.
 By Liz Ruskin
 Anchorage Daily News
 (Published: September 26, 2002)

 Washington -- President Bush called House and Senate energy bill
 negotiators to the White House on Wednesday, pressing them to finish their
 work on the bill and restating his support for drilling in the Arctic
 National Wildlife Refuge.

 "The president said, 'I want an energy bill, and I want ANWR in it,' "
 Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, said afterward.

 The bill is in the hands of a conference committee that is trying to
 reconcile the House-passed energy bill with the Senate's. The House
 version would open the refuge's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain to
 exploration. The Senate bill would keep the refuge closed to development.

 The chairman of the conference, Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., is determined to
 finish the bill next week.

 Tauzin, an ardent supporter of opening the refuge, has pledged to make
 Senate Democrats "an offer they can't refuse" to push the drilling
 proposal through.

 Tauzin said Tuesday he might try to trade the climate-change policies the
 Democrats want for the ANWR development the Republicans want. At the White
 House on Wednesday he proposed a more limited plan of drilling -- opening
 part of the coastal plain while protecting other areas from development.

 "It's what many people are willing to consider if anyone's willing to
 listen," Tauzin told a Dow Jones reporter. "The president listened very
 attentively, but he did not take a position."

 Murkowski brought mounted maps to the White House to describe the concept.
 He said, though, that there's no concrete proposal on scaling back
 development of the coastal plain.

 "Well, it's all open now (in the House version) and reducing it means less
 would be open, in theory, OK?" he told reporters. "But please understand
 there's no definitive determination at this time associated with anything
 more than discussions."

 It is just "part of the mix" before the negotiators, he said.

 Sen. Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, said he
 didn't think even a scaled-back ANWR deal could get through the Senate.

 "I've answered this question so many times I don't know how to say it
 again," said Bingaman, D-N.M. "I think there's strong opposition in the
 Senate to opening ANWR to development and that's still my impression."

 He and Murkowski said provisions that might spur construction of a
 pipeline for North Slope natural gas came up in the White House discussion
 but only in a general way.

 The administration has said it opposes the price guarantees Murkowski
 attached to the Senate bill.


 Like Alaska as a whole, Murkowski has a lot riding on this energy bill.
 Murkowski, who is running for governor, has been trying for virtually his
 entire Senate career to open ANWR and get a gas line built. Winning
 legislation on those two mega-projects would be the biggest achievement of
 his years in office.

 ------- snip  (more follows on his plan for dealing with Alaska's state
 government "budget gap")
 Reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at 202-383-0007 or [log in to unmask]

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