Information about the vote from special interest groups and other information providers in our Report Cards:
League of Conservation Voters
Public Lands & Public Resources - Arctic Drilling.
The House included a measure opening the Arctic refuge to oil and gas development in its energy bill (H.R. 4). Among the most contentious issues in the House debate over this provision was the potential size of the drilling area. Development advocates maintained that drilling operations would require no more than 2,000 acres total—less than a typical airport. However, the U.S. Geological Survey has projected that commercially recoverable oil would be scattered in dozens of small pockets across the refuge. As a result, drilling activities would be spread out over hundreds of square miles, crisscrossing most of the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain. Moreover, even if drilling operations were technically confined to 2,000 acres, the effects of exploration and development would be much broader. Seismic exploration would scar much of the area’s tundra. Nitrogen oxide and other pollutants would contaminate the air. Millions of gallons of fresh water for ice road construction would be drained from the coastal plain''s few lakes and streams. Mines would gouge millions of cubic feet of gravel from riverbanks and coastal areas. Taken together, these activities would have a devastating impact on the biological heart of the Arctic refuge.
Nevertheless, during floor debate on H.R. 4 Representatives John Sununu (R-NH) and Heather Wilson (R-NM) sponsored an amendment that purported to limit the environmental damage from oil development on the coastal plain. Their 2,000-acre “limitation” was designed to mislead both the public and other lawmakers. Not only would it allow the 2,000 acres to be scattered across the coastal plain, it would exempt gravel mines, permanent roads, and even pipelines from the “limitation.” Because the nature of drilling activities in the Arctic Refuge would be no different with or without the Sununu-Wilson amendment, environmentalists strongly opposed this deceptive amendment. The House approved the amendment.
U.S. Public Interest Research Group
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge/Oppose Drilling in 2,000 Acres of Refuge.
Rep. Sununu (R-NH) and other proponents of drilling offered an amendment claiming to limit drilling to 2,000 acres of the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge as a way of picking up support from moderate members of Congress. Their claim that drilling activities would be limited to 2,000 acres was misleading, as it exempted gravel roads, ice roads, and pipelines associated with developing an oil field. The House approved the amendment.Americans for Tax Reform
Alaskan Oil.
The House adopted an amendment limiting oil and gas drilling operations in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to 2,000 acres of total surface area, thus assuring passage of the president’s energy proposal.