Senate Democrats vow to fight drilling in Alaska reserve

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats vowed on Tuesday to fight a measure expected to be slipped into budget legislation that would open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil and gas drilling, saying it would destroy one of earth’s remaining paradises.

Northern Alaska’s ANWR is a wilderness about the size of South Carolina that supports tribes that have fished and hunted there for thousands of years and is home to polar bears, caribou and birds vulnerable to development.

A plan passed by the Senate budget committee late last month contains a directive for the Senate energy committee to draw up a provision securing $1 billion in revenue for the budget, which is expected to be voted on late Thursday.

The head of the energy panel, Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican and a longtime proponent of drilling in ANWR, is expected to write a provision opening the reserve. She and Senator Dan Sullivan, also an Alaska Republican, have both supported measures to open up parts of ANWR.

“This Republican budget scam to hand over the wildest place left in America to Big Oil should be removed from the budget and put on ice,” said Senator Edward Markey.


More: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-oil-arctic/senate-democrats-vow-to-fight-drilling-in-alaska-reserve-idUSKBN1CM38C