House Oks oil drilling in Alaskan wildlife refuge

 Washington – The House of Representatives rejected a move to ban oil exploration in an Alaska wildlife refuge Wednesday and fended off tougher fuel efficiency standards for sport utility vehicles, handing President Bush important victories in the fight over national energy policy.  The House was poised to cap those votes late Wednesday night by approving a wide-ranging energy bill that largely mirrored Bush’s proposals to expand oil and gas exploration and promote conservation.  Bush and the House of Republican leadership won with the help of organized labor, a traditional Democratic Party constituency that aggressively lobbied against higher mileage requirements and for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  The House votes will strengthen Bush’s hand when the overall energy bill is reconciled with the Democratic-written Senate energy measure later this year. The President has said his initiatives are essential to meet the country’s energy needs and to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.  Success on the high-profile energy and environmental issues also helped to balance Bush’s recent setbacks in Congress on other environmental measures and may help restore the GOP-majority House as the bulwark of his legislative agenda.

 An amendment to ban oil drilling in the Alaskan refuge failed 223-206. The bipartisan environmental coalition proved no match for an alliance of pro-labor Democrats and Republicans who support more domestic oil production.  Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who led both the fights for greater fuel efficiency and against oil drilling in the Arctic, described Wednesday’s confrontation as “a cataclysmic collision of powerful political forces. It’s the top environmental issue of this Congress,” he said. “It’s also the top issue for the oil and gas industry.”  Supporters of drilling noted that the amount of land devoted to oil production would be a small fraction of the refuge. Republicans eased the way for fence-sitting Democrats by backing an amendment that placed a 2,00-acre limit on the total surface area that could be affected by oil and gas exploration in the 19-million-acre refuge.  Rep. W.J. “Billy” Tauzin, the Republican chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, noted that wild animals live unimpeded right next to oil wells in wildlife refuges in the bayous of his native Louisiana.

 “Is my wildlife any less sacred or precious than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?” he asked  The Teamsters Union and the building and trades lobbied heavily for the drilling provision, arguing it would generate thousands of new jobs in Alaska. And the United Auto Workers worked aggressively against higher fuel-efficiency standards for SUVs, arguing that they would force automakers to shut down plants and eliminate jobs.  The House rejected those tougher fuel efficiency standards for sport utility vehicles and minivans by 269-160, bowing to the protests from unions and automakers that the requirements would cost lives and jobs. The argument was persuasive enough to attract 86 Democratic votes, including those of House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri and his top lieutenant, David Bonior of Michigan. Both have auto plants in their districts and large union support.  The fuel provision would have required automakers to manufacture SUVs, light trucks and minivans that average 27.5 miles per gallon beginning in 2007, placing those bigger vehicles on the current standard for automobiles.

As passed, the bill instead sets a goal for automakers of reducing gasoline consumption by a total of 5 billion gallons over the period between 2004 and 2010.

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