The House and Senate passed FY06 budget bills; the Senate version includes
language that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
Congress is now on a two-week recess and will return to Washington the week of
4/3.

===

Budget/Appropriations

The House and Senate Budget committees sent their FY06 budgets to the full
chambers on 3/11. The House version (H.Con. Res. 95) does not include revenues
from oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. On 3/17, the House
passed its budget by a vote of 218-214 after defeating, 180-242, an amendment
offered by Rep. Obey (D-WI) to increase funding for domestic programs,
including an additional $370 million for the state loans program that funds
wastewater infrastructure projects, and $230 million for land aquisition. The
Senate passed its FY06 budget on 3/17 by a vote of 51-49. The Senate version
(S. Con. Res 18) includes language to open the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling.
Amendments to strip the language failed in both the Budget Committee and on the
Senate floor: Sen. Feingold's (D-WI) committee amendment was defeated by a
party line vote of 10-12 on 3/11, and Sen. Cantwell's (D-WA) amendment was
defeated, 49-51, on 3/16. House and Senate negotiators must now agree on final
budget numbers in conference committee, which may prove difficult as conferees
grapple with different funding levels for Medicaid, veterans' benefits and
other domestic programs (Congress was not able to reach agreement on the FY05
budget and passed appropriations bills without a final budget). If the two
chambers cannot agree on the FY06 budget, the Arctic Refuge drilling provision
will not go into effect.

On 3/15, the House passed a supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 1268) to
fund the war in Iraq by a vote of 388-43. With a complicated parliamentary
maneuver, supporters of the REAL ID immigration bill (H.R. 418) were able to
attach the bill to the spending bill with no opportunity for amendment. The
REAL ID bill contains a provision giving the Secretary of Homeland Security
sweeping new authority to waive any federal or state law during the
construction of border barriers and roads without judicial review. The
provision would apply to the entire length of the borders between Mexico and
Canada, and possibly to any coastal infrastructure controlled by the Department
of Homeland Security. In addition to contract, criminal and labor safety laws,
border projects could be exempted from environmental review under the National
Environmental Policy Act or from provisions in the Clean Air Act, Clean Water
Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. The Senate will consider the supplemental
spending bill when it returns from recess.

A complete budget analysis is available at
http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/050209a.asp.

Can't believe this is really going to happen
The votes in the House were just as close as the votes in the senate.

Bill Maher interviewed the Governor of Alaska last night. The Governor said that there is no proof that there is oil in the ANWR area.

The drilling could be a complete waste of money and the enviorment. There are many "experts" who believe that even if oil is found--the amount will be small.

WHAT?????

Amazing! Who do you believe? The repukes saying there is too much oil not to drill, or this.

I think the Governor of Alaska was being honest when he said they did not know if there was oil at ANWR--he is Republican and is in full support of the drilling--the drilling will create jobs and be good for the economy in his state. Interestingly, he also said that the problem for US is not so much the lack of oil, but the lack of refinerys in this country. The reason for the lack of refinerys (according to him) is that finding a location is difficult because US communities dont want a refinery in their backyard. After the explosion of the refinery in Texas City, Texas this week--it may be more difficult in the future.

I lived in Dubai, UAE for several years--I paid $5 a gallon in for gas even though Dubai's weath came from their oil. The reason for the hefty gas price was that their oil had to be exported to refinerys and then imported. I dont know if the US would benefit financially if we had more refinerys, however, the Governor seemed to think so.

The main oil contract traded in New York, light sweet crude for delivery in May, finished 1.03 dollars higher at 54.84 dollars with brokers fretting over the blast's impact on gasoline supplies heading into the US summer.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...bp_050324231759

Excerpt from article above regarding the blast at the Texas refinery:

"It's probably washed away any dreams of gas prices going lower any time soon," Alaron Trading broker Phil Flynn said.

"It reminds us how tight refinery capacities are and how vulnerable we are to disruptions."