Democrats unable to block Senate move to allow drilling in ANWR

Washington Examiner:
Senate Republicans are one step closer to fulfilling a long-time goal of allowing oil and gas drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge after Democrats failed Thursday night to stop it.

The Senate rejected a Democrat-authored amendment to its 2018 budget resolution that would have removed language allowing oil and natural gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Democratic amendment, part of a marathon series of votes known as "vote-rama," failed by a 52-48 vote.

That means the budget resolution, which passed soon after, contains instructions for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to recommend policies to save $1 billion over the next decade, to be served by drilling in the refuge.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who in 2005 voted against allowing drilling in the refuge, provided a decisive vote this time, refusing to vote with Democrats who tried to block it. Senate Susan Collins, R-Maine, who also voted against drilling in the refuge before, did the same Thursday night, siding with Democrats. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., voted with Republicans.

Republicans in Congress have long pushed to allow energy exploration in a 1.5 million-acre section of the Alaskan refuge, where billions of barrels of oil lie beneath the refuge's coastal plain. But Democrats have blocked those efforts, because they consider the refuge as one of the wildest places left in America, and worry about harming native habitat.
...
Opposition to drilling in ANWR never made any sense.  It was a gift by the Democrats to Russia and OPEC.  It meany more US consumer money going to people who did not have US interests at heart.  It was a sop to the anti-energy left which seeks to push inefficient alternative energy.

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