Swamp Stomp
Volume 17, Issue 50
Senate Republicans passed a tax reform bill early Saturday morning with a provision opening up parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas development. The provision, introduced by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, passed 51-49 along party lines, save Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) who voted against the bill. The measure represents a “critical milestone in our efforts to secure Alaska’s energy future,” Murkowski said in a statement.
Established by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1960, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, spans across 19 million square acres of Alaska’s North Slope, making it the largest wildlife refuge in the United States. Often referred to as the “Serengeti” of North America, the refuge is home to over 200 species of wildlife, including caribou, arctic foxes, wolves, and a variety of bird species that migrate from all over North and South America to roost there in the summer months.
The ANWR is also the only refuge in the country where one can see black bears, grizzly bears, and polar bears in the same place, and serves as a wildlife corridor for species to move between the Canadian Yukon territory to the east and the Chukchi Sea to the northwest. A number of Alaska Native tribes, such as the Gwich’in, continue to rely on caribou herds that migrate through the refuge for sustenance.
After former President Jimmy Carter expanded the refuge in 1980, Congress designated 1.5 million acres on the north coast of the refuge as a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, after the fears of oil shortages intensified following the Arab oil embargo and Iranian Revolution of the 1970s. Geologists estimate the SPR contains around 12 million barrels of accessible crude oil, potentially worth around $685 million.
Senate Republicans argue that the drilling would only minimally impact the environment since only tracts within the SPR would be eligible for sale to gas companies and citing newer, cleaner extraction technologies that supposedly are more environmentally friendly.
Yet Democrats and environmentalists remain unconvinced, referencing the fact that oil spills remain incredibly common and that the SPR is virtually the only spot in all of Alaska where caribou calve in the spring. The measure to allow drilling in the ANWR was attached without debate to the tax reform bill rather than being presented as a stand alone bill. Since the tax reform bill has a direct impact on the national budget, it only needed a simple majority to pass, rather than the usually 60-vote filibuster threshold applied to all other legislation.
“Little wonder Senate Republicans rushed the vote: it wouldn’t survive the light of debate,” said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, of the legislation.
About a week before the Senate’s vote, twelve House Republicans had written a letter to both the House and Senate arguing against drilling the ANWR, saying that the refuge’s resources “simply are not necessary for our nation’s energy independence.”
Now that both the House and the Senate have voted on a tax reform bill, they will come together in the coming weeks to work out the differences and discrepancies between their two bills before submitting a bill to President Trump’s desk to either sign or veto.
Sources:
- Howard, Brian Clark and Sarah Gibbens. “See the Alaska Wildlife Refuge Targeted for Drilling by Tax Plan.” National Geographic. National Geographic, 2 December 2017. Web. 3 December 2017.
- Gardner, Timothy. “Drilling in Alaska refuge liklier as Senate clears tax bill.” Reuters. Reuters, 2 December 2017. Web. 3 December 2017.
- Koss, Geof and and Kellie Lunney. “Procedural knots tie up ANWR, reform push.” E&E Daily. E&E News, 1 December 2017. Web. 2 December 2017.
- Solomon, Christopher. “America’s Wildest Place is Open for Business.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 November 2017. Web. 3 December 2017.
- Westneat, Danny. “How to drill for oil in Alaska’s wildlife refuge: Sneak it through in tax bill.” The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times, 22 November 2017. Web. 3 December 2017.