03.16.06

Cantwell: A Vote for Budget is a Vote for Drilling

Just two weeks after largest oil spill in history of Alaska’s North Slope, Senate Republican leaders push ill-advised maneuver to open pristine Refuge to drilling

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thursday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a member of the Senate Energy Committee, called on the Senate to defeat the pending Budget Resolution unless Republican leaders removed language clearing the way for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“Year after year, the American people have made it clear that they don’t want Arctic drilling and they don’t want us to pass major policy using backdoor tactics,” said Cantwell, Senate Democrats’ point person on energy issues. “With oil giants posting some of the biggest profits in history, they don’t need another giveaway. Instead, we need forward-looking solutions that give America a better, cleaner, more reliable, energy future. We need to put this deeply flawed proposal to rest once and for all.”

The Senate Budget Committee included provisions in its version of the Fiscal Year 2007 Budget Resolution that direct the Senate Energy Committee to come up with legislation to produce $3 billion in new federal revenue. This would, in effect, direct the committee to open the coastal plain of the Refuge to oil exploration and development, moving Arctic drilling along on the fast-track to Senate approval. Cantwell called on the Senate to vote against the Budget Resolution unless this “reconciliation instruction” to the Senate Energy Committee is removed.

Language currently in the Budget Resolution would not only push ahead with drilling, but could also clear away existing environmental protections in a region already facing the consequences of significant spills.

“Just this month, over 200,000 gallons of oil spilled on Alaska’s North Slope—right next door to the Refuge,” said Cantwell. “This is the largest spill in the history of North Slope drilling. Clearly, we have work to do when it comes to making sure oil exploration doesn’t irreversibly damage our treasured public lands.”

The estimated 201,000 to 267,000 gallon spill, discovered on March 2, resulted from a quarter-inch hole caused by corrosion inside a three-mile pipeline leading to the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline. According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and Trans-Alaska Pipeline have caused an average of 504 spills annually on the North Slope since 1996. Those spills included more than 1.9 million gallons of toxic substances including diesel, crude oil, and hydraulic oil.

Last week, Cantwell joined Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Energy Committee Ranking Member Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and John Kerry (D-MA), and others in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) underscoring their strong opposition to using this year’s budget resolution to authorize drilling in the Refuge. Last December, on the floor of the Senate, Cantwell successfully stopped legislation originally included in a defense spending bill that would have given a green light to Arctic drilling. By leading the fight to keep Arctic drilling out of the 2006 Defense Department Appropriations Act, Cantwell stopped a reckless giveaway to the oil industry and kept the Senate playing by the rules.

According to U.S. Geological Survey estimates, there are between 3.2 to 5 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil in the Refuge. The U.S. as a whole was on track to use more than 7.4 billion barrels in 2004, or about 20.4 million barrels per day, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA has also estimated that it would take seven to 10 years for oil from the Arctic to reach the market, meaning it would have no effect on today’s high gasoline prices.

Established by President Eisenhower in 1960, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is a diverse and fragile ecosystem. Proponents of drilling want to open the coastal plain—the most biologically diverse part of the Refuge—to oil exploration.

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