Drilling ANWR

CONGRESSIONAL leaders seem to be plotting a budget maneuver that will authorize oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Energy Bill just signed into law is silent on Arctic Refuge, but Congress can use a deceptive budget maneuver to avoid the very Senate rules that kept it out of the Energy Bill. Congress earlier passed the FY 2006 Budget Resolution with instructions to the House and Senate resources committees to find $2.4 billion of ''savings" in the Interior Department budget by Sept. 16. That Budget Resolution is also silent on Arctic Refuge, but majority leaders have indicated they will use those instructions to justify authorization of Arctic Refuge drilling. The plan would be to use inflated revenue projections to reconcile the FY 2006 Budget with current law. Raising $2.4 billion from Arctic Refuge leasing will never happen. The Administration would have to receive oil industry bonus bids averaging $4,000 per acre for the 600,000 acres it would offer for lease to receive that much revenue.