Senate blocks drilling in Alaskan refuge

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Senate Democrats Wednesday successfully blocked efforts by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration.

The Democrats were able to sustain a filibuster of a key defense spending bill that contained an amendment by Stevens that would permit exploratory drilling in ANWR.

Two Republicans -- Sen. Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island and Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio -- joined Democrats in denying their party the 60-vote supermajority that would ended the filibuster. The vote was 56-44.

President George Bush Wednesday urged the Senate to pass the defense appropriations bill for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and hurricane relief.

Democrats want Stevens to remove the oil drilling language from the defense bill so the measure can be passed, Marketwatch reported.

Since 1980, Republicans trying to open the wildlife refuge on Alaska's North Slope to oil drilling have run into tough opposition from conservationists and environmentalists.