Latest update on Budget Reconciliation and the Arctic Refuge

[Great Lakes Organizer Gal]

(Below is the text from a recent article in the Associated Press. We
are being told that the Senate vote could be as early as the week of
Oct 31, and the House vote is scheduled for the week of Nov 7.)

The Associated Press
ANWR proposal in House has numerous provisions
Conditions for sale of oil leases in refuge cover 25 pages.
10/26/2005

FAIRBANKS -- A proposal to develop oil in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge released by the chairman of the U.S. House Resources Committee
contains far more provisions than a Senate version.

Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., released a draft version Monday that
would direct the Interior Department to sell oil leases in the refuge
under a list of conditions that covers about 25 pages. The Resources
Committee will meet to consider the language today.

The House, in a budget resolution passed earlier this year, asked the
committee to produce legislation that would create $2.4 billion in
extra federal revenues over five years. The unwritten intent was that
the money would come from oil lease sales in ANWR.

To meet the $2.4 billion, Pombo also proposes to charge more for mining
claims, develop oil shale and let coastal states opt out of
congressional moratoriums on offshore oil leasing.

"America needs more American energy and Congress must cut the deficit,"
Pombo said. "That makes this a win-win package for the American
public."

A parallel but much trimmer version of ANWR-drilling language was
approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last
week. Republican senators said they stripped their version of nonbudget
language to avoid getting hung up on a Senate rule that allows any
senator to throw up procedural obstacles if a budget reconciliation
bill contains "extraneous" legislation.

The House has no procedural rule blocking extraneous matters on budget
bills. However, any final compromise version between the House and
Senate still must meet the Senate rule or face a procedural objections
in that body.

The final bill could hit the floor by early November, senators say.

Both the Senate proposal and Pombo's would split royalties 50-50 with
the state of Alaska. Both declare that a 1987 environmental assessment
is good enough for the Interior Department to start writing oil lease
regulations.

Any subsequent environmental statements would be limited to a review of
just two leasing alternatives, to be done within 18 months of the law's
enactment. Both proposals also would declare leasing to be compatible
with the purposes of the refuge. And both would limit the surface area
disturbed by roads, pads and pipelines to 2,000 acres.

Like the Senate version, the House proposal requires lawsuits over any
aspect of the law or agency action to be filed within 90 days. The more
detailed House version also would:

· Ban export of ANWR oil.

· Require oil companies and unions to "negotiate to obtain" a project
labor agreement for work in the refuge.

· Order a lease sale offering at least 200,000 acres within 22 months
of the law's enactment.

· Set a government royalty rate of 12.5 percent.

· Allow the Interior secretary to exclude up to 45,000 acres in
"special areas" that can't be drilled.

· Direct the secretary to block drilling from 4,000 acres around the
Sadlerochit Spring.

· Authorize $5 million a year for an "impact fund" for North Slope
communities affected by oil development.

· Grant land in the refuge to the Kaktovik Inupiat Corp. and the
Arctic Slope Regional Corp. Kaktovik's land is still owed from the
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. ASRC is owed land from a
1983 swap with the Interior Department.