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CNN Live Today

Showdown Over Energy Nearing in Congress

Aired April 11, 2002 - 12:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A showdown is nearing in Congress over the Bush administration's energy plan and, in particular, the proposal to search for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

CNN's Jonathan Karl is on Capitol Hill, where the plan is before the Senate right now -- hi there, Jonathan.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fredricka.

And this is a major priority for the Republican. The president has talked repeatedly about the need to drill for oil up in Alaska as a way to deal with the dependency on Middle Eastern oil. And advocates up there -- Republicans are pushing hard. They expect to bring this up perhaps today -- if not today, tomorrow. That would set the stage for a vote early next week, Monday or Tuesday.

Now, a lot of this comes down to: What is up in Alaska, differing definitions? If you look at the tape that you frequently see when people talk about the wildlife refuge up in Alaska, it is described as pristine, a beautiful place where the caribou live. Now, the advocates for drilling up there say that this video is actually quite misleading.

And we can switch now to video that the Department of Interior has given us to describe what they say is the real area where the drilling would be. They say this is the section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge which would used to drill oil. It's a very small part of this vast area. It is a place that they describe as somewhat of a wasteland. And they also point out that the drilling would take place not during the spring, when you saw those beautiful pictures of the caribou running through the fields, but in the dead of winter, when they can go in and do very little environmental impact to drill for oil.

But that is the situation here. You can hear that debate go back and forth. To drill for oil up in Alaska, the Republicans will need 60 votes. And that is considered very much an uphill task up here. They believe they have about 51 or 52. But with the developing situation in the Mideast and with high gasoline prices, they are trying to make a last-minute push for this. One Republican senator involved in this effort said that, if gas prices went up another 20 cents a gallon, they would have plenty of votes for this, as Americans would see the need to drill for oil here in the United States. But it's going to be a tough battle. And right now, Democrats are pretty confident they have what it takes to defeat this -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks very much, Jonathan, from Capitol Hill.

We want to explore the issue further now with CNN's Mark Potter. Mark is in Miami today. But he has spent time in the colder climates of Alaska reporting on this story.

And so you know it well. So, it looks like it is going to be an uphill battle, possibly, on Capitol Hill. They need 60 votes. They are a bit from it right now. But how much oil are we talking about? What kind of dependency might we really see from this area?

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, that is the open question. And it's the question of the day, as this debate surfaces again.

This has been around for decades. And here we go again. The question is: How much oil is there? The answer is, we don't really know. There is a guess, based on some surveys that were done in the mid-1980s, that there may be anywhere from six billion to 16 billion gallons of oil under the coastal plain area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The proponents of drilling say it is time to go in there now and find out exactly how much oil is there and then drill it out. And they say this is becoming a national security issue as well as an economic issue. And the environmentalists, however, say that there may not actually be enough oil there to make it worth it, even economically, for the United States.

And they certainly would argue that, from an aesthetic and environmental standpoint, it is a not worth it at all to defile what they believe is a national treasure, a wilderness treasure. And even the coastal plain area, which some people diminish its value, they say is America's Serengeti. It's the calving grounds for a massive caribou herd. And it's an area that is important to migratory birds.

This argument has been going on for years. The sides are still basically the same. The information is the same, because, again, the last real survey done there was in 1985. The proponents say it is time to go in. The opponents say, if you do that, it will always be defiled.

WHITFIELD: And so, Mark, the majority of the Alaskans are a bit concerned that this will be indeed a threat to the environment there?

POTTER: No, there are many people in Alaska, of course, who are concerned about that. And there is a strong environmental movement.

But the majority opinion, actually, in Alaska is in favor of drilling ANWR, according to the polls. Oil has been the lifeblood of Alaska. It is a major portion of the state budget. It has kept taxes low. It has brought to the Northern Slope area housing and medical care for the Eskimos who live there and who work in the area. It is a situation where most Alaskans actually favor the drilling.

WHITFIELD: OK, Mark Potter from Miami, thanks very much -- the beginning of this ongoing argument of ANWR.

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