Wow: Drilling In the Arctic Wildlife Refuge (Wasteland) Approved By the Senate

51-49, no filibuster permitted:

Amid the backdrop of soaring oil and gasoline prices, a sharply divided Senate on Wednesday voted to open the ecologically rich [read: they have many varieties of "environmentally-sensitive" lifeless tundra mud] Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, delivering a major energy policy win for President Bush.

The Senate, by a 51-49 vote, rejected an attempt by Democrats and GOP moderates to remove a refuge drilling provision from next year's budget, preventing opponents from using a filibuster - a tactic that has blocked repeated past attempts to open the Alaska refuge to oil companies.

The action, assuming Congress agrees on a budget, clears the way for approving drilling in the refuge later this year, drilling supporters said. The House has not included a similar provision in its budget, so the issue is still subject to negotiations later this year to resolve the difference.

I really didn't think they'd ever manage this one.

Huzzah!

Support Oil Exploration in ANWR

Because if caribou can survive freezing their nards off in perpetually subzero temperatures, they're probably butch enough to hack an oil pipeline in their fields of vision.

posted by Ace at 04:44 PM

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