Republicans Fail To End Alaska Drilling Debate

[irishgrl]

Republicans fail to end Alaska drilling debate By Tom Doggett and Julie Vorman
3 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday failed to muster enough votes to keep a measure to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in a $453 billion defense spending bill.

The ANWR refuge, which sprawls along Alaska's northern coast and may hold 10 billion barrels of oil, has been the focus of bitter wrangling in the U.S. Congress for more than two decades.

Most Senate Democrats and some moderate Republicans said the frigid wilderness and its assortment of wildlife, ranging from polar bears to peregrine falcons, should be protected. Republicans contend ANWR must be opened to drilling to stop a steady slide in U.S. crude oil production.

Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska attached the measure to a $453 billion defense spending bill that pays for U.S. troops and Pentagon weapons programs in the coming year. Furious Democrats conducted the filibuster, saying the ANWR measure had no connection to military spending and violated Senate rules.

Although lawmakers were anxious to wrap up work for the year, Republicans failed to get the required 60 votes needed under Senate rules to cut off debate on the bill.

Republicans hold 55 seats in the Senate while Democrats have 44 seats. There is one independent.

Democrats were expected to immediately move to seek a parliamentary ruling that the ANWR measure was not germane to the bill. However, they need 51 votes to win a vote on such a motion.



*CROSSES FINGERS*