DALLAS, April 2 (UPI) -- Supporters of the House-passed energy bill said Tuesday that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is critical to increasing U.S. domestic oil production and strengthening homeland security during the war on terrorism.
In a rally with Teamsters members, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Teamsters officials urged the Senate to pass the bill, which includes controversial exploratory drilling in a small section of the pristine refuge.
"We believe Republicans and Democrats were right in the House when they passed a bill that included drilling in Alaska in an area about the size of a major city airport out of a region about the size of South Carolina," the energy secretary said.
Abraham and Hutchison said since Sept. 11, energy has become an issue of national security and the nation must reduce its dependence on foreign oil. About 60 percent of the nation's oil comes from foreign countries.
"We cannot have homeland security if we don't control the stability of oil and gas prices in our country," Hutchison said. "In the last two weeks alone, the price of gasoline has increased 14 cents. Now everyone of you who are driving trucks know what that does to the bottom line."
About 50 teamsters were gathered on a platform with Abraham and Hutchison as they spoke at the Yellow Transportation truck terminal in Dallas. The union is a strong supporter of the energy bill that comes up for final debate next week in the Senate.
Tyson Johnson, vice president of the Teamsters southern region, expressed concern that the United States is so dependent on foreign oil, especially from the Middle East. He said any energy bill must include drilling in arctic refuge to increase domestic production.
"We need a bill that would provide more than solar panels, lower thermostats and walking rather than driving," he said.
At a news conference, Abraham and Hutchison were asked about the report Friday of the U.S. Geological Survey that warned drilling in the refuge might cause harm to populations of caribou, musk oxen, and polar bears.
Hutchison and Abraham said the study was based on old technology and did not take into account the modern methods of oil exploration that cause less harm to the surrounding environment.
"It assumes the old kind of technology in drilling and it is not in any way relevant to what we would do, which is limit the drilling to 2,000 acres in the entire ANWAR, which is size of South Carolina," Hutchison said.
Abraham said the USGS study looked at several scenarios of development on the refuge. He said the energy bill's proposed drilling area is much smaller then 1.5 million acres in the report's worst case scenario and the impact would be negligible.
"Exploration and drilling technology is also far beyond what it used to be," he said. The "footprint" of the surface development would be much more restricted and less harmful to the environment that in the past, Abraham said.
