Editorial: Trouncing a political scheme

Friday, Dec. 23, 2005 | 7:28 a.m.

Going into this week Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was confident that he had the votes to get away with a political scheme to force approval of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

House and Senate negotiators, at the strong urging of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, had agreed to place a provision authorizing the drilling within the unrelated defense budget bill. The scheme passed the House, and Frist believed he had enough support in the Senate to override a Democratic filibuster.

Following Stevens' line of reasoning, Frist believed the drilling provision would pass, as the defense bill contains money to support our troops and to repair damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Voting against such an important bill would put the Democrats in a difficult political position. Even if the Democrats filibustered, Frist was confident that he could get the 60 votes needed to end it.

On Wednesday, however, Frist learned that there are still enough principled senators in office to stop political maneuvers that unabashedly violate Senate rules (unrelated bills are prohibited from being bundled together at the last minute, as these two were). Forty-three senators, including two Republicans, voted a solid no on the plan hatched by Stevens.

Frist, finally realizing how the vote would go, also voted no, but it was only for a procedural reason. Senate rules allow anyone who votes against a bill to call for it to be revived at some point.

We have always strongly opposed drilling in the ANWR. One reason is that no oil would begin flowing from there for 10 years or more if approval were granted. During that time, the nation could fully develop alternative fuels and new technology (hybrid vehicles, for example) that would do a better job of reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

Additionally, even energy experts concede that the amount of oil in the ANWR is likely so small that it wouldn't reduce either our imports or our gas prices.

The almost insignificant benefit received from drilling in the ANWR could never justify the massive environmental damage that it would create in this now-protected wilderness that provides habitat for many threatened animals, including polar bears and reindeer.

If not for principled stands by many senators over the decades, destruction of the ANWR might already be taking place. We hope the Senate remains an unflinching obstacle to the threats facing this national treasure.