Bush's energy plan faces tough fight in Senate

Washington - Past its first congressional hurdle, President Bush's strategy from fixing the nation's energy problems still faces a difficult road in the Senate over Arctic oil drilling.  Still, approval by the House of major chunks of Bush's energy plan, including drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge, buoyed Republicans in the Senate. The energy debate will resume there is September after Congress' summer recess.  "It's a whole new dimension," a beaming Sen. Frank Murkowski, R - -Alaska, said Thursday, expressing confidence that the Arctic drilling proposal  once considered dead, now would be resuscitated.

"Lightening does strike twice," he said, noting that the House, with 38 Democrats voting with Republicans, defeated attempts to strip the Arctic refuge provision from the energy package.  The same coalition blocked attempts in the House to require much tougher fuel efficiency requirements for gas guzzling sport utility vehicles.  The Senate Energy Committee this week begin to consider part of what is expected to be a broad energy bill focusing more heavily than the House Bill on booting conservation and renewable energy sources and fixing the precarious electricity distribution system in an era of competition.

"Destroying the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, is a complete political non starter in the Senate," Said Sen. John Kertry, D - Mass, who has vowed to block any drilling provision with a filibuster if necessary.  "The vast majority of the American people want us to find our oil elsewhere," added Senate Majority Learder Tom Daschle of South Dakota. Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott acknowledge that drilling in the Arctic refuge will be uphill fight, despite the House vote. Still, he said, he expects it to be fully debated and voted upon.  "It's going to be a tough haul," agreed Sen. Larry Craig, R - Idaho.

In addition to strong Democratic opposition to drilling at least a half a dozen moderate Republicans, many from New England with strong environment constituencies, are on record as wanting to keep the Alaskan refuge off limit to oil companies. Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Thursday that additional environmental safe guards put into the HOuse bill as part of the drilling proposal may enhance its Senate chances.  The house required that no more than 2,000 acres be permanently affected by drilling activities across the 1.5 million acre coastal plain believed to contain 5.6 billion to 16 billion barrels of oil, more than has been taken out of neighboring Prudsoe Bay fields over nearly four decades.

The refuge "would be subjected to the most stringent environmental protection requirements" of any oil field, Norton said at a news conference with Senate Republicans.  Environmentalists discounted the 2, 000 acre limit saying it does not cover exploratory activities and that development still could be scattered across the refuge plain.  The oil industry has said it does not anticipate a larger "footprint" than that in its drilling activities in the refuge.

A wild care in the Arctic debate in the Senate is likely to be labor, which has argued that arctic drilling will mean thousands of jobs.  intense lobbying by the Teamsters and several other unions was credited Thursday with swaying a number of Democrats and moderate Republicans in the House to support the plan.  "I think they play key roles," said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.  Although the labor movement is divided over drilling in the Arctic refuge, the unusual alliance between the Teamsters, construction  trades and maritime trades, all of whom stand to gain from additional Alaska oil development, with the Republican congressional leadership caught environmentalists off guard. In the Senate "we're going to double our efforts," said Jerry Hood, a Teamsters official from Alaska who has led the union's lobbying on the energy bill.

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