Coleman wavering on Arctic drilling

10/01/2005

Rob Hotakainen,
Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent
October 1, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As a Senate candidate in 2002, Norm Coleman called Alaska’s wilderness a “little pristine piece of the world” and pledged to oppose a plan to allow drilling in the state’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

But with a showdown vote expected later this month, environmentalists fear that they’re about to lose the support of Minnesota’s Republican senator if—as expected—the provision is tucked into a year-end budget bill.

Their fears might be valid.

While Coleman still opposes oil and gas drilling in ANWR, his spokesman, Tom Steward, said Coleman also supports the budget he’s worked hard on.

“He’s ... not going to vote against a budget where he’s worked very, very diligently to protect draconian cuts to Medicaid and the farm safety net,” Steward said. Coleman has “done everything he can,” Steward said, to oppose the drilling plan but that he must now support the budget bill because it’s “for the greater good of Minnesota.”

After successfully batting away drilling plans for ANWR for more than 25 years, environmentalists fear that the Republican-led Congress is on the verge of delivering pro-drilling legislation to President Bush, giving him what would surely rank as one of the largest victories of his second term.

With a close vote expected, all eyes are on Coleman.

“He could very well be the single vote keeping the oil rigs off the coastal plain of the refuge,” said Kristen Cummings of the National Wildlife Federation, a conservation organization.

Lobbying Coleman

Two prominent Minnesota Republicans, former Gov. Arne Carlson and former Sen. David Durenberger, wrote a letter to Coleman on Thursday, saying that drilling in the Arctic would reverse nearly five decades of U.S. policy, initiated by President Eisenhower. They said that putting pro-drilling language in a budget bill is a “clear attempt to circumvent” an open debate and that approving it would create “a dangerous precedent” that could put the federal protection of other wilderness areas, including Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, at risk.

“If our nation makes the wrong energy and conservation choices, the consequences for our children’s future will be dire—and so will the consequences of failed leadership,” Carlson and Durenberger said in the letter. They praised Coleman for showing “true independence and integrity” by so far abiding by his 2002 promise.

Backers of oil drilling say the rising cost of gasoline since Hurricane Katrina should help close the deal over ANWR.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who favors drilling, said that a majority and a growing number of Americans say it’s more important to develop new energy sources than to protect the environment.

“We have proof that development can occur safely,” she said. “Gradually, the American people are getting our message.”

As the lobbying intensifies, Coleman is not the only Minnesotan in environmentalists’ focus. They’re also taking aim at Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy, who said he opposes drilling but who won’t say how he’d vote if the measure is included in a budget bill.

“I don’t answer ‘if’ questions,” said Kennedy, who’s running for Senate next year.

Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., who opposes drilling and has been involved in fights over ANWR since the late 1970s, said Republicans have devised “a clever and almost a surefire strategy” to get the drilling plan approved this year by burying it in a big budget bill.

“It would give cover to environmentally minded Republicans who would vote no on ANWR as a freestanding bill or a separate amendment,” he said.

He said the strategy would allow some Republicans to tell constituents that they opposed drilling but that they needed to support the overall budget bill to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and hurricane recovery efforts, along with other federal programs: “That’s what they’re counting on, giving their own members cover.”

Congress attempted a similar maneuver in 1995, but President Clinton thwarted the measure. A veto would be unlikely this time; Bush has been attempting to open ANWR to drilling since he took office in 2001, saying it would lessen the nation’s reliance on foreign oil.

While putting the pro-drilling language in a budget bill might be unusual, it has a big advantage for Republicans: Under Senate rules, budget bills cannot be filibustered and require only a majority of votes to pass. In past years, opponents have been unable to get the 60 votes needed to stop a filibuster.

Up-or-down vote

Evan Rice, Minnesota coordinator of a group called Republicans for Environmental Protection, said that including the pro-drilling language in a budget bill is “a plainly surreptitious attempt to open the refuge to oil exploration and exploitation.” He said Republicans would be hypocrites if they resorted to “procedural shenanigans” to open the region to drilling, comparing it to his party’s demands that Democrats allow straight up-or-down votes on judicial nominations.

“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” Rice said.

Rep. Jim Ramstad, a loyal supporter of environmentalists, declined to comment on the issue. But he has promised to vote against the budget bill if it includes pro-drilling language, according to Samantha Yarbrough, a field representative with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

She praised Ramstad “for his commitment to his promises” but said Coleman “has decided to put the wishes of large oil companies above his campaign promises.” Yarbrough called on Coleman to keep his word, too.

Steward said that Coleman has been among a handful of Republicans who have consistently voted against oil drilling in ANWR and that he has made his views known to Republican leaders. Consequently, he said, Coleman has kept his promise to Minnesotans.

“The senator has done what he said he was going to do,” Steward said, adding that Coleman “firmly believes that he’s doing the right thing” by backing the overall budget reconciliation bill.

Yarbrough is unconvinced.

“He promised to protect the Arctic Refuge; now he is going to vote for drilling,” she said. “Next thing you know, Senator Coleman will be rooting for the Packers.”