They still have to secure funding for ANWR drilling

[brentspeak]

They can't -- or rather, won't -- drill in ANWR unless taxpayer funds are secured. No way will oil companies heave their machinery over to ANWR unless they know someone else will be footing the majority of the bill.

In other words -- tie these sleazeballs up in the courts just until the next election. And hope that enough anti-ANWR Senators get elected.

[Tace]

1. Here's Hoping You're Right

: )

[flpoljunkie]

2. Not according to this AP article. They can start drilling this year!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40648-2005Mar16.html

Senate Votes to Allow Arctic Drilling


By H. JOSEF HEBERT
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 16, 2005; 2:10 PM

WASHINGTON - Amid the backdrop of soaring oil and gasoline prices, a sharply divided Senate on Wednesday voted to open the ecologically rich 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 oil industry has sought for more than two decades to get access to what is believed to be billions of barrels of oil beneath the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the northern eastern corner of Alaska.

_____________________

There has not been a budget resolution passed for the last two years, but I would not bet this one won't.

[Dinger]

3. This Will Get Ugly (ier) (nt)