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Bush Victory: House Allows Oil Drilling in Alaska
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling and to beat back efforts to significantly raise the fuel efficiency of sport-utility vehicles, as lawmakers moved toward approving the most sweeping energy legislation in a decade. An attempt to ban drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was defeated 223-206.
The razor-thin vote to open the refuge marked a major victory for President Bush, who had launched a furious lobbying effort to win wavering lawmakers.
Ever since the White House unveiled its energy strategy in May, proponents and opponents alike had predicted that environmentalists would prevail in the drilling debate. But at the prodding of the White House, a powerful coalition of business groups and organized labor countered environmentalists with a lobbying blitz of their own. In addition, Bush privately framed the vote as a test of GOP loyalty.
"When you think about it, Bush has four or five things he cares about, and this is one of them," said Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill. "He pulled out all the stops."
A similar coalition brought down a bipartisan effort to tighten fuel-efficiency standards on SUVs, 269-160. Lobbied hard by the United Auto Workers, 86 Democrats, mostly from the industrial Midwest, joined 182 Republicans and one independent to vote down an amendment that would have raised fuel-economy standards for SUVs to 27.5 miles per gallon, the same standard that cars must meet.
The legislation also would offer incentives for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, fund research into the recycling of nuclear waste, and extend tax breaks to encourage conservation, oil and gas production, nuclear energy and cleaner-burning coal technologies.
Democratic leaders were aided by a small group of moderate Republicans in the effort to ban oil exploration in the Arctic. They also objected to new tax breaks at a time when falling tax receipts and the ongoing tax-rebate program may force the government to tap Medicare taxes to balance the budget.
But heavy union lobbying was critical in defeating the tougher fuel-efficiency standards for SUVs and the Arctic drilling ban.
Union leaders, including Teamsters President James Hoffa, said the fuel-efficiency measure would force automakers to develop smaller, lighter SUVs and trucks that would be less safe and more expensive than existing, popular models. They said it could cost as many as 135,000 high-paying jobs and would shut 18 auto plants.
The unions also said Arctic refuge drilling would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, while at the same time saying the impact would be limited to a tiny, 2,000-acre sliver of the 1.5 million acre refuge.
The ultimate fate of the drilling provision remains in doubt. The Democratic-controlled Senate began drafting its own energy legislation Wednesday, a version almost certain to exclude drilling in the wildlife refuge. The Senate is expected to vote this fall.
Still, the vote represents a remarkable reversal of fortune for Bush. Earlier this summer, the House voted to ban energy exploration on national monument lands and to delay drilling off the coast of Florida.
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