US Senate energy chief says ANWR language won't be in budget bill

Washington (Platts)--14Dec2005

A budget reconciliation bill pending before US Congress is no longer a
viable vehicle for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Senate Energy
and Natural Resources Chairman Pete Domenici (Republican-New Mexico), said
Wednesday. 

     "There are some other ways to do it," he told reporters outside a policy
luncheon in the Capitol building. 

     Domenici, architect of the plan to authorize oil and gas leasing in ANWR
by attaching it to a filibuster-proof budget reconciliation bill, would not
elaborate on alternatives to the budget measure. But much of the talk in the
Senate Wednesday centered on the possibility of including ANWR language in a
Defense appropriations bill on which conferees are to be named shortly. 

     Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens (Republican-Alaska), an ardent
backer of drilling in the refuge, pledged to attach ANWR language to either
the Defense or budget bill. "It's gonna be on one bill or the other before I
get home," he told reporters. He also said he would attempt to win support for
ANWR by bundling with it aid to states affected by Hurricane Katrina. 

     The Senate passed its version of the budget bill with ANWR, but the House
stripped it out at the last minute after a group of 24 GOP moderates pledged
to vote against the measure if ANWR were included. 

     Last week, a spokesman for one of those moderates, Rep Charles Bass of
New Hampshire, said they still had enough votes to ensure ANWR would not be
included in the budget package.

                       ---Matt Spangler, matt_spangler@platts.com

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