Donovan, Dan Rep ny

<p>Six House Republicans are urging Budget Committee leaders to omit

from the fiscal 2018 budget resolution any language that supports

opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.

The moderates said in a <a href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2017/06/23/document_pm_02.pdf">letter</a>

yesterday to Budget Chairwoman Diane Black (R-Tenn.) and ranking member

John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) that they don't believe the "long debated and

highly controversial" issue of ANWR development belongs in a

"responsible budgeting process."

Republican Reps. Dan Donovan of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick of

Pennsylvania, Frank LoBiondo and Chris Smith of New Jersey, Erik Paulsen

of Minnesota, and Dave Reichert of Washington sent the letter.

The group urged Black and Yarmuth to not include any language in the

budget blueprint the committee is crafting that would either explicitly

open ANWR to development "or allow opening of the Refuge through the

reconciliation process."

President Trump's fiscal 2018 budget proposal assumes cost savings

of $1.8 billion over the next decade by allowing oil and gas drilling in

a portion of ANWR starting in 2022 — a longtime priority of Senate

Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Drilling supporters are eyeing development within a 1.5-million-acre

swath of the 19-million-acre refuge.

The Alaska congressional delegation is looking to the budget

reconciliation process as a vehicle to include revenues related to oil

and gas drilling in ANWR, though neither chamber has produced a fiscal

2018 budget resolution yet with guidelines for the appropriations

process. Budget reconciliation is an expedited maneuver that allows

certain budget and fiscal matters to pass by a simple majority in the

Senate.

"Any development in the Refuge would not only disrupt this fragile,

critically important area, it would also erode this long-standing

commitment to protect our most valued landscapes," the six House

Republicans wrote. "We strongly believe that any debate on the status of

the Coastal Plain should occur outside of the budget reconciliation

process."

When Murkowski introduced her bill earlier this year to allow

limited oil and gas development within a portion of ANWR, she argued

that doing so would create new jobs, reduce the deficit and protect

national security.

"For nearly 40 years, Alaskans have proven that we can responsibly

develop our natural resources while protecting the environment," she

said in a January press release introducing the legislation. "Alaskans

overwhelmingly support responsible development in the non-wilderness

portion of ANWR and there is no valid reason why we should not be

allowed to proceed."</p><p>
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