Senate votes to allow Arctic oil exploration

WASHINGTON -- A closely divided Senate yesterday voted to allow oil exploration in Alaska's sprawling Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, handing President Bush a victory on one of his biggest energy priorities.

Supporters of drilling narrowly turned back an effort by Senator John F. Kerry and other Democrats to kill the measure, with a 51-49 vote that had the effect of the Senate ruling in favor of drilling. The House has approved drilling in previous years and is expected to do so again this year.

Drilling proponents argued that the environmental impact would be minimal, and they said the need to develop energy sources within the United States argued for allowing private oil exploration in a coastal portion of the 19.6-million-acre refuge. They cited record oil prices, which topped $56 a barrel yesterday, as a reason to act now.

''The reality is we have high gas prices," said Senator George Allen, a Virginia Republican. ''We are over-dependent on foreign sources of energy. We are being jerked around. . . . We should be less dependent, less reliant for our security."

The Bush administration has estimated that the Arctic refuge's 1.5-million-acre coastal plain could yield as much as 1 million barrels of oil a day, and the president has pitched it as a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil.

The United States uses about 20.8 million barrels of oil a day, about 58 percent of it imported. That percentage is expected to rise in the coming years, because of the limited domestic reserves currently available, even including oil from the Arctic reserve. Private companies would operate in Alaska under leases from the federal government, and the Interior Department has said that oil production is unlikely to begin before the middle of the next decade.

But even before drilling can occur, procedural and legal obstacles remain, and Democrats and environmental groups vowed to keep up efforts to derail the measure.

Still, the Senate in recent years has voted down drilling at the Alaska refuge, and yesterday's vote -- largely a result of GOP gains in November -- left drilling supporters declaring victory in a battle that has lasted a quarter-century. The vote could also ease the way for Congress to pass Bush's energy plan, which fell apart during the president's first term amid disagreement over Alaska drilling.

President Bush, in a statement, said he applauded the Senate vote ''to allow for environmentally responsible energy exploration in a small part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."

''A reliable domestic supply of energy is important to America's security and prosperity," he said, calling on Congress to pass his energy plan.

The wildlife refuge was created in 1960 by President Eisenhower, who set aside land for protection from development. In 1980, Congress expanded the refuge and said the 1.5-million-acre coastal plain could be opened to oil development only if lawmakers specifically authorized it.

''This is a big step," said Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican who has been seeking to open the refuge to drilling since 1980. ''I'm trying to smile again."

Democrats denounced yesterday's vote, arguing that drilling in the Arctic refuge would spoil one of the last pristine wilderness areas in the United States. Senator Barbara Boxer took to the Senate floor to display oversized photographs of porcupine caribou in a vast meadow and polar bears in a peaceful water setting and said lawmakers have a responsibility to protect their habitat.

''This is a God-given environment," said Boxer, Democrat of California. ''If you believe as I do that these are gifts, then I think we have to be careful of what we're doing here today."

Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said even optimistic predictions for the area's oil potential would barely dent America's dependence on foreign sources for its energy needs. His political action committee launched a last-minute Internet advertising campaign aimed at seven moderate Republicans, but none of them switched their votes.

''It's a sad day when the voices of the American people are ignored and the Senate sells off America's public lands to the highest bidder," said Kerry, who made opposition to drilling at the Arctic refuge a theme of his failed presidential bid last year. ''You can't drill your way out of America's predicament. You have to invent your way out of it."

A December Zogby International poll found that 55 percent of Americans favored keeping oil companies out of the Arctic refuge.

All 100 senators voted either as they had in previous years or as they had promised publicly. Opponents had sought to persuade the three Democrats who crossed party lines to change their minds, with particular attention paid to lobbying senators Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Daniel K. Akaka of Hawaii.

But Akaka told colleagues that he had made a commitment to supporters of oil exploration, and Landrieu told fellow Democrats shortly before the vote that her position had not changed.

''I was disappointed," said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, who said his desire to fight a proposal to drill in the Arctic refuge was one of the main reasons he ran for the Senate for the first time, in 1988. Republican leaders included the drilling provision in the Senate budget resolution, allowing it to pass with the support of a simply majority instead of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. But Democrats hope that procedural maneuver will be the measure's undoing.

Congress has failed to approve a final budget each of the last two years, and a similar failure this year would nullify yesterday's Senate approval and force a drilling bill to get the 60 votes necessary to end a filibuster, instead of 50.

Lieberman said drilling opponents will continue to lobby their colleagues for possible future votes.

The president of the National Wildlife Federation, Larry Schweiger, issued a statement predicting that environmental groups will ''ultimately succeed in keeping oil rigs out of America's largest and wildest refuge."

Jeremy Marin, a Boston regional representative of the Sierra Club, accused Republicans of relying on inflated estimates of the potential for oil production at the Arctic refuge and of understating the impact it would have on the environment.

''The fight is not over," Marin said. ''We will press on with a vigilant campaign to keep the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge . . . wild and free and out of the budget."

But Republicans reveled in the victory yesterday. A vote on the same matter defeated drilling 52-48 last year, but the GOP picked up four seats in November, changing the math in the Senate.

''This is an important step that will help expand our energy supplies, stabilize prices, create jobs, and increase our national security," said Senator Jim DeMint, a freshman Republican from South Carolina who replaced a Democratic opponent of drilling in the Arctic refuge. ''It only happened because Americans elected a larger Republican majority."

Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.