US House Suspends Push for Alaska Oil Drilling
Date: 11-Nov-05
Country: USA
Author: Richard Cowan
"ANWR and OCS will be out" of the legislation, said House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, an Iowa Republican.
Besides the Alaska oil drilling initiative, the House spending-reduction bill had also called for opening outer-continental shelf, or offshore areas, to oil and gas drilling.
The proposals had drawn opposition from Democrats and two dozen or so Republicans in the House.
The Senate approved the controversial ANWR proposal last week when it passed $35 billion in spending cuts over five years. That measure estimates the US government would raise about $2.4 billion in leasing fees if industry was allowed to develop the refuge's 10.4 billion barrels of crude.
Environmentalists have opposed expanding oil drilling to the sensitive area in Alaska and some Florida congressmen have worked to kill the offshore oil and gas drilling plan. Both projects have been a high priority of US oil companies.
With a more ambitious, $54 billion spending-reduction bill getting bogged down in the House, Republican leaders jettisoned the oil drilling plans for now.
House leaders wrapped up their negotiations on details of the budget bill, which would cut food-stamp benefits to some poor people and raise out-of-pocket costs for some health care for the poor.
The full House is expected to vote on the legislation Thursday. If it becomes apparent the legislation is headed for defeat, House leaders have fashioned rules for debating the bill that would let them postpone a vote.
Even without the two energy initiatives, the fate of the budget bill was uncertain, as no House Democrats were expected to vote for it and several moderate Republicans might defy their leaders.
The oil and gas drilling legislation is not dead as supporters are hoping for one more chance this year to win passage.
If the spending-reduction bill passes the House, the two chambers of Congress would appoint negotiators to work out differences between the bills.
Senate Republicans could insist the ANWR drilling proposal be reinserted into the House bill, forcing a vote by the full House of Representatives.
