Thursday, 17 March, 2005

drillin' After hearing that the Senate had finally overcome the ban on oil extraction activities in the Alaska Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I felt a little aggrieved. I recognize there is a lot of oil up on the Alaskan North shore, the Boston Globe says some estimate it could yield 1 million barrels a day. That measures well against the 12 or so million barrels per day we import currently. On the other hand that's it; that's our oil reserve. Plus the idea of a wildlife refuge ought to count for something. I wanted names I wanted to name names. I figured the Washington Post would print them, but I got impatient, and went looking for them. Someone (Robert and his graduate asst. Sasha) advised me to try Thomas, a function of the Library of Congress. Bill Summary & Status. I thought I had made a mistake at first, what I found didn't seem like much. Well, here, have a look: first off S.AMDT.168 (the Cantwell Amdt.). That amends: S.CON.RES.18. Particularly to strike from it section 201(a)(4) relative to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. So I followed that, to its source: { S.CON.RES.18 Title: An original concurrent resolution setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2006 and including the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2005 and 2007 through 2010. SEC. 201. RECONCILIATION IN THE SENATE. (a) SPENDING RECONCILIATION INSTRUCTIONS- In the Senate, by June 6, 2005, the committees named in this section shall submit their recommendations to the Committee on the Budget of the Senate. After receiving those recommendations, the Committee on the Budget shall report to the Senate a reconciliation bill carrying out all such recommendations without any substantive revision. (4) COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES- The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources shall report changes in laws within its jurisdiction sufficient to reduce outlays by $33,000,000 in fiscal year 2006, and $2,658,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2006 through 2010.} Clear as mud really.  I turned to the debate in the congressional record just prior to the vote... Ms. CANTWELL (D-WA). Mr. President, I have submitted to the desk the amendment to strike the language out of the budget that would recognize revenue from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We started this discussion last night with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to talk about why America should not be focusing on drilling in a wildlife refuge, turn down the recognition of this revenue, and focus instead on an energy policy that will put America in better stead, get us off our dependency on foreign oil, reduce pollution, and focus on the technology that will truly make us energy independent... But we are here today on what I call a budget end run to recognize revenue in the budget as a way to try and open drilling in ANWR, to open drilling in this pristine wildlife area. Now it all makes some sense It's a posed as a budget enhancement issue - those wildlife refuges got to start pulling their weight. I note the Washington Post web version of the article 51-49 Senate Vote Backs Arctic Oil Drilling unlike the print version does not list the names of the senators and how they voted; so here as a public service is that list: U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Votes > Roll Call Vote: YEAs ---49 Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Byrd (D-WV) Cantwell (D-WA) Carper (D-DE) Chafee (R-RI) Clinton (D-NY) Coleman (R-MN) Collins (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND) Corzine (D-NJ) Dayton (D-MN) DeWine (R-OH) Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Feinstein (D-CA) Harkin (D-IA) Jeffords (I-VT) Johnson (D-SD) Kennedy (D-MA) Kerry (D-MA) Kohl (D-WI) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (D-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) McCain (R-AZ) Mikulski (D-MD) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Obama (D-IL) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Salazar (D-CO) Sarbanes (D-MD) Schumer (D-NY) Smith (R-OR) Snowe (R-ME) Stabenow (D-MI) Wyden (D-OR) NAYs ---51 Akaka (D-HI) Alexander (R-TN) Allard (R-CO) Allen (R-VA) Bennett (R-UT) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burns (R-MT) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Cornyn (R-TX) Craig (R-ID) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Dole (R-NC) Domenici (R-NM) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Frist (R-TN) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hagel (R-NE) Hatch (R-UT) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Inouye (D-HI) Isakson (R-GA) Kyl (R-AZ) Landrieu (D-LA) Lott (R-MS) Lugar (R-IN) Martinez (R-FL) McConnell (R-KY) Murkowski (R-AK) Roberts (R-KS) Santorum (R-PA) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Specter (R-PA) Stevens (R-AK) Sununu (R-NH) Talent (R-MO) Thomas (R-WY) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Voinovich (R-OH) Warner (R-VA) 11:28:26 PM    comment [];trackback [];

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 2005 Paul Bushmiller. Last update: 3/31/05; 23:51:29.