Time to call our Senators!

Arctic drilling language heads to Senate markup this week

Ben Geman, E&E Daily reporter

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will meet
Wednesday to mark up budget reconciliation language that would
allow oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge.

Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) plans to allow energy
leasing on ANWR's coastal plain to meet the committee's $2.4
billion reconciliation instruction. The chairman's mark of the
reconciliation language released Friday requires two lease sales
before October 2010. The measure is expected to clear the
committee.

The ANWR measure would be attached to a larger $34.7 billion
Senate budget spending reconciliation package. Drilling supporters
broke though in the Senate last spring by winning a vote to keep
the energy committee's reconciliation instruction in the fiscal
year 2006 budget resolution. The vote revealed a slim 51-49
majority in favor of ANWR drilling due to gains in the 2004
election.

On the floor, opponents may challenge the ANWR provisions under
the Senate's "Byrd Rule," which bars inclusion of extraneous
provisions in budget reconciliation bills. Drilling opponents say
ANWR revenue projections are overblown and speculative, and that
decisions about ANWR development are energy policy matters that
should not be in the budget.

Brian Moore, legislative director with the Alaska Wilderness
League, believes the possibility of a Byrd Rule challenge depends
on how the ANWR measure is written. "Senator Domenici is an expert
on the budget," he said before the language was released,
referring to Domenici's prior reign as chairman of the Budget
Committee. "I am sure he will try and draft language that prevents
him from getting caught cheating."

Sixty votes are needed to waive the Byrd Rule if a reconciliation
provision is deemed extraneous by the Senate Parliamentarian after
a member raises a point of order. This is key because budget bills
themselves are not subject to filibuster.

The language circulated Friday limits the area that may be covered
by production and support facilities to 2,000 acres on ANWR's
coastal plain, which includes "airstrips and any area covered by
gravel berms or piers for support of pipelines."

Other provisions state that any environmental impact statement
prepared for the lease sales is not required to identify
nonleasing courses of action. "The Secretary [of the Interior]
shall only identify a preferred action for leasing and a single
leasing alternative, and analyze the environmental effects and
potential mitigation measures for those 2 alternatives," it
states.

Also, the public comment period for the Interior Department's
preferred leasing plan and environmental analysis is limited to 20
days after an environmental analysis is published. The ANWR
language provides for "expedited judicial review" in the U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, with a 90-
day window for filing legal challenges to Interior development
decisions.

The Senate Budget Committee plans to mark up the wider budget
reconciliation package on Oct. 26 after receiving language from
authorizing committees. In the House, the Budget Committee plans
to take up its reconciliation package the week of Oct. 31. House
Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) alsointends
to include ANWR drilling in its budget reconciliation package and
is planning a markup next week.

Schedule: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will
meet at 10 a.m. on Wednesday in 366 Dirksen.

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