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. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/