< Poll Numbers Plummet House Votes to Limit Eminent Domain > On Thursday, primarily along ... Senate Passes Budget Bill; Opens

On Thursday, primarily along party lines, the Senate voted 51-47 to approve the 2006 budget and, in the process, agreed 51-48 to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska to oil drilling, despite the nominal impact such drilling would have on US oil supplies.

Polls show that most Americans oppose drilling in ANWR. A January bi-partisan national survey showed overwhelming opposition: 53 percent to 38 percent; a Zogby poll concurred : 55 percent oppose to 38 percent support. A Pew study in March showed 46 percent oppose and 42 percent approve, with a clear generational division (younger Americans oppose; seniors support).

The vote is one of style over substance. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who led the fight against drilling, cited Energy Department data showing the benefits are insignficant, with about a one-cent decrease in gas prices in the long-term.

A 2004 Energy Department analysis estimated peak production from ANWR of only 876,000 barrels a day by 2025. This would reduce US dependence on foreign oil by about 4 percent per year. However, Republicans are counting their chickens in this budget: it assumes the sale of drilling rights will generate revenues of at least $2.4 billion over five years. The bill requires Department of the Interior to sell leases within two years.

Created in 1960, ANWR was expanded in 1980 to its current acreage, about the size of South Carolina. Concurrent with expansion, Congress reserved 1.5 million acres, known as Section 1002, for possible oil and gas exploration.

A 2003 National Academy of Sciences study showed that environmental impacts "would extend beyond the actual drilling zone and would cause significant damage to wildlife habitat."

The Senate bill (S. 1932 - Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005 ) does not match the House budget bill; differences will be worked out in conference committee. The House bill also includes a provision to "allow states along the east and west coasts to permit oil and gas drilling off their shore."

Congress may enact appropriations even though there is no specific legislative authorization.Procedurally, Republicans attached the provision opening ANWR to the budget bill because the budget cannot be filibustered . Had the issue (drilling) been raised in standard legislative manner, it would have been subject to a fillibuster.

Both votes occurred mostly along party lines. In the vote (51-48) on the amendment (No. 2358), seven Republicans voted "yes" [Chafee (R-RI) , Coleman (R-MN) , Collins (R-ME) , DeWine (R-OH) , McCain (R-AZ), Smith (R-OR) and Snowe (R-ME)] and three Democrats voted "no" [Akaka (D-HI), Landrieu (D-LA) and Inouye (D-HI) ].

In the vote (52-47) on the budget, five Republicans voted "no" [Chafee (R-RI) , Coleman (R-MN) , Collins (R-ME) , DeWine (R-OH) , and Snowe (R-ME)] and two Democrats voted "yes" [Landrieu (D-LA) , Nelson (D-NE)]. Corzine (D-NJ) did not vote.

In some ways, the budget process is a farce. Congress rarely, in modern times, completes the budget before the fiscal year begins on 1 October. (This one is no exception.) Annual appropriations bills control only one-third of the total spending in a typical year, according to the Almanac of Policy Issues . Permanent laws control most of the spending and do not require Appropriations Committee action; this includes payments on the public debt and major social programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, federal employee retirement plans, and unemployment insurance.

Neither the House nor Senate budgets will reduce the deficit; they do not include, for example, military spending in Iraq. However, the NY Times called the Senate bill "the most ambitious effort to curb federal spending in eight years."

Republicans plan to cut taxes another $70 billion later this year by extending existing tax cuts. However, Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned against extending the tax cuts if Congress could not make up for the lost revenue by reducing spending or finding other income sources.

Annual interest on the national debt was $352 billion for fiscal 2005 (which ended 30 September). The public debt, effective 1 November, was $8 trillion .

Initial reaction from editorial boards and the blogosphere is not kind. The Seattle PI called the procedural work-around "dishonest" ... from Fort Wayne (IN) before the vote: "[W]here's the fiscal restraint? ... One provision would open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, which poses serious environmental threats while offering dubious potential for future oil production. The Senate also rejected a move to cut $75 million in members' pet transit projects, such as Alaska's $223 million 'bridge to nowhere.'"

In North Dakota , praise for Sen. Coleman (R-MN), who voted against the Administration:Furthermore, the oil industry estimates no oil would be flowing from the refuge for at least a decade and full production would not be reached for 20 years. Even then, crude oil from the refuge would make up only 0.8 percent of world production, which is meaningless at current rates of consumption. Oil prices are set on the world market. The tiny estimated production from the Arctic refuge would have little or no impact on prices, according to the Energy Information Administration of the Department of Energy...

The legitimacy of the drilling measure is in question because of the way it’s been managed in the Senate. If drilling in the Arctic refuge is such a good idea, it should be able to stand alone and clear the Senate on its merits. It can’t, and that’s why Senate leadership pulled a fast one on the American people, the vast majority of whom oppose opening the refuge, according to nearly every poll that’s been taken on the issue.The War on Error provides links to additional information on ANWR drilling and noted in March:The push by Bush II & Co. to drill in the ANWR, together with the survey results above, if they're accurate, further evidences the disparity between the administration and its constituents.Quite Musings from Virginia quotes former President Jimmy Carter:"The United States invented the national park. Have we so lost our way a century later that we are prepared to sacrifice a one-of-a-kind wilderness for a shot at a small and temporary supply of oil? Similarly, are we so desperate for a fast buck that the other natural treasures in Alaska are for sale to the highest bidder?"On the Road to 2008 takes issue with the three Democrats who jumped ship on the amendment: had just two of them stuck with the party, the Republicans would have lost the vote. From Big Lizards : "... pro-energy forces won! The Luddites lost..." and goes on to champion this vote as one that might influence global supply:With that oil flowing here first and only later into the world market, we will have a much more robust supply if OPEC does to us again what they did in 1973, when they decided to punish us (and the the Netherlands) for supporting Israel after the Arabs launched a sneak attack in the Yom Kippur War.In a similar vein, Rob at Say Anything says: "It's almost like these people (Democrats) don’t want to see gas prices come down and for America to be less dependent on foreign oil." And from Random Numbers : "The United States needs to do whatever it can to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, drilling in ANWR is just a start, but a good one."

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