Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee blocked an effort by Democrats to keep the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge closed to oil and natural gas exploration and development during mark-up Thursday of the panel’s fiscal 2006 budget resolution..

The amendment, which was offered by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), was defeated by 10-12. The GOP win kept intact a budget instruction to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that authorizes exploration on the coastal plain of the 19-million acre ANWR.

Senate Budget Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH), in his chairman’s mark, assumes that ANWR will produce $2.5 billion in receipts over five years, reserves $2 billion for comprehensive energy legislation and assumes $4.6 billion in energy tax incentives (see Daily GPI, March 10).

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s (R-TN) office on Thursday said that the budget resolution is next on the Senate’s list for floor debate, following completion of the bankruptcy measure. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), a senior member of the Budget Committee and chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, indicated that floor consideration of the measure would come next week.

“I hope today’s ANWR vote in committee will be repeated on the Senate floor next week,” Domenici said. For ANWR legislation to clear the Senate, it will require only a simple majority (51 votes) because the matter is being dealt with through the budget reconciliation process.

“This is a back-door maneuver by drilling proponents to avoid an open debate because they know that drilling in the refuge lacks the support to be approved on its merits,” said Feingold. “For 20 years, there has been bipartisan support to prevent drilling for oil in the Arctic refuge, and we will be fighting as hard as ever this year to continue to protect the Alaskan wilderness.”

Unlike Feingold, Domenici believes the budget resolution in the proper vehicle for ANWR. He noted that Congress passed ANWR as part of the Balanced Budget Act in 1995, but it was vetoed by President Clinton.

The House Budget Committee completed mark-up of its fiscal 2006 budget blueprint late Wednesday, but it did not include any budget instructions on ANWR. This doesn’t mean the end of ANWR in the House, however. Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), chairman of the House Resources Committee, supports exploration and development of the coastal plain of ANWR, and is expected to include it in his chairman’s mark of comprehensive energy legislation. The panel has jurisdiction over ANWR in the House.

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