Washington - Supporters of a plan to open the Artic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling seem perfectly positioned this week as the Senate debated the issue in the midst of U.S. military action against Iraq and heightened concerns about the nation's domestic oil supply.
The measure, inserted in a budget bill, needed only a simple majority, as opposed to the 60 votes required in previous attempts, but it failed Wednesday, 52-48, on a vote to strip it from the budget bill. Defeat came even though it was a priority of President Bush, whose party controls the Senate. Louisiana Sens. John Breaux and Mary Landrieu, both Democrats, supported the amendment to open the Alaskan preserve to drilling.
Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-Chackbay, said defeat came because environmentalists have managed to make the 2,000 acres targeted for oil and gas exploration "the sacredest of all environmental shrines".
When Republicans took control of the Senate after mid-term elections, the leadership developed a strategy it believed would finally push the ANWR legislation through after 23 years of failure. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., agreed to add the measure to budget bill, which is not subject to a filibuster and needs only 50 votes for passage. Vice President Dick Cheney was available Wednesday to cast the tie-breaking vote if necessary, but the opportunity never came.
Opponents said supporters could not overcome arguments that drilling in ANWR would not produce new oil and gas for seven to ten years, and that it would then only reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil by 2 percent.
"There's not enough oil there to give give America energy independence or to have any impact on gas prices," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife. "If we really want to do something about our dependence on foreign oil, we should require SUV's to meet the same fuel economy standards as ordinary cars."
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, the bill's chief sponsor, pushed hard in the final days and hours to get the final two votes needed. Aides said he targeted five senators he thought could be persuaded: Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both Arkansas Democrats; and Republicans Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois and Gordon Smith of Oregon.
He got none of them. Carol Werner, executive director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, said many senators considered sympathetic to drilling arguments were reluctant to vote for it because they had promised environmentalists that they would not. Among them was Coleman, who waited until the last minute to decide on his vote.
Just before the debate ended Stevens reminded senators that he chairs the Senate Appropriations committee, which controls all federal financing.
"People who vote against this today are voting against me, and I will not forget it," he said.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said she was worried by what she called an apparent threat by Stevens, but in the end she attributed the ANWR provision's defeat to nature photos of the Arctic reserve, including images of Alaskan polar bears and caribou, that drilling opponents brought to the Senate floor.
" There's something more powerful out there than any senator, even than any president, and that's God's gift to us," Boxer said. " And we stood on that side of preserving this wondrous gift."
Tauzin said the claims of Boxer and drilling opponents were exaggerated, what with drilling slated for only a tiny percentage of ANWR, far from the most scenic and environmental important parts, and in a way that "won't harm the environment."
But with all the emotion, it's hard to get that argument across," Tauzin said.
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Bruce Alpert can be reached at bruce.alpert@newhouse.com or (202) 383-7861.