Alaska senators make another push for oil drilling in ANWR

WASHINGTON


“This has got to come from the ground up,” Murkowski said. “From the constituents, from the American consumer saying ‘Enough, Congress.’ This is the No. 1 issue domestically in the country right now, what is happening with the price of energy.”

Efforts to open up the refuge for drilling have had a long and storied history in Congress, with Stevens or Murkowski (or her father) offering up some form of legislation annually. In 2005, when Congress rejected yet another bid to open the refuge to development, Stevens called it the “saddest day of my life.”

This year’s proposal has a few new twists that Murkowski, the lead sponsor, says might help persuade some former skeptics.

After the state of Alaska gets a cut of the 12.5 percent royalties, 50 percent of the proceeds would go toward alternative energy research overseen by the Department of Energy. Another 33 percent would go toward federal low-income home energy assistance or weatherization programs. The final 17 percent would go toward the food stamp program.

Drilling in ANWR would do more than any economic stimulus package, Stevens said. It also would trim U.S. dependency on foreign sources of oil.

McClatchy Newspapers