Two bills were introduced in the Senate and House yesterday tofight back efforts to open up the coastal plain region of theArctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and natural gasexploration and production.

“President Bush through Sen. [Frank] Murkowski is coming toCongress and asking us for authorization to permit drilling in theAlaska refuge. The answer we’re giving them [with these bills] is’no, it should not be drilled. It should be set aside aswilderness,'” said a press aide for Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA),who co-sponsored the House legislation with Rep. Nancy L. Johnson(R-CT). Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) sponsored the companion billin the Senate.

“It’s particularly timely that we push back the threat in thismanner,” given that Murkowski (R-AK) called for drilling in theArctic region as part of the omnibus energy legislation that heintroduced on Monday.

Specifically, the two bills seek to permanently protect thecoastal plain by adding it to the National Wilderness PreservationSystem.

The coastal plain region of ANWR was designated as wilderness,and thus placed off-limits to drilling activity, as a result of theAlaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA).The act authorized the Interior Department to study the coastalarea, and make recommendations to Congress as to whether it shouldremain wilderness or whether drilling should be permitted.

The Interior Department under the Reagan administrationrecommended drilling, but Congress failed to authorize it, theMarkey aide recalled. Capitol Hill Democrats and even someRepublicans, mostly those representing New England states, now areconcerned that the Alaska coastal plain could lose its wildernessstatus in light of the support of the president and the Republicanmajority in Congress for drilling in ANWR.

In a related development, survey results released yesterdayshowed that American voters by a 52%-35% margin oppose drilling inthe arctic coastal plain. The Mellman Group and Bellwether Researchconducted the survey of 1,000 voters on behalf of The WildernessSociety for the Alaska Coalition. It reportedly has a margin oferror of plus-or-minus 3% in 95 out of 100 cases.

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