WASHINGTON - Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Budget Committee said Monday they opposed putting in the 2007 budget bill language assuming the government will raise billions of dollars in oil drilling leasing fees from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In its budget proposal to Congress, the Bush administration said it expected $7 billion would be raised by allowing oil drilling in the Alaskan refuge, and the Congressional Budget Office puts the figure at $6 billion.
No matter what the number, most Senate and House Democrats are against opening the refuge to oil companies.
"It is irresponsible to base the country's budget on highly speculative and dubious projections of lease revenues for the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," all nine Democrats on the budget panel said in a letter to the committee's Republican chairman, Judd Gregg.
Putting the ANWR leasing revenues in the budget bill is a way to get around a threatened filibuster of any legislation that would open to refuge to oil drilling, because budget bills can't be filibustered.
"We encourage you to reject any requests that are intended to misuse the budget process to open the refuge to oil and gas drilling and exploration," the Democratic lawmakers said.
The Senate Budget Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to include the ANWR leasing revenue in the government's 2007 budget.
Last week, 24 House Republicans sent a letter to House Budget Committee chairman, Republican Rep. Jim Nussle, urging him to keep Arctic refuge drilling out of the 2007 budget bill.
The administration has failed every year to convince Congress to give energy companies access to the refuge, which is a key part of the White House's national energy plan.
The refuge, which is home to a variety of wildlife such as polar bears and migratory birds, stretches across 19 million acres in the northeast corner of Alaska. But the White House only wants to offer 1.5 million acres in the refuge's coastal plain for oil and natural gas exploration leases.
The Interior Department estimates the refuge could hold between 5.7 billion and 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
If the refuge was opened to drilling, it would take about eight years before the area reached full production of around 800,000 to 1 million barrels per day, according to the Energy Department.
Story by Tom Doggett
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
