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Couldn't find anywhere better to put this, but some good news!
The Alaska Drilling Thingy has been defeated 52-48, so the caribou and whatnot are safe for now:
The Republican-controlled Senate narrowly rejected President Bush's proposal to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling today...
The 52-48 vote against a key element of Bush's energy program came despite GOP hopes that the likely onset of war with Iraq over the next few days would reinforce arguments for domestic energy production to help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
But eight Republicans joined all but five Democrats in opposing inclusion of a go-ahead for the long-controversial Alaska drilling project in the congressional budget for next year under parliamentary rules that bar filibusters.
A proposal to allow drilling in the refuge was defeated last year by a filibuster. Republicans picked up a few votes for ANWR drilling in last November's elections, enough to narrow the margin but not to change the outcome
The Senate Budget Committee's GOP majority attempted to make ANWR a budget matter -- and thereby filibuster-proof -- by including roughly $2 billion in anticipated revenues from bidding on leases for drilling rights in its version of Congress' budget resolution for fiscal 2004. |
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