And War on ANWR Continues

So, today the Senate in a close 51 to 49 vote authorized drilling within the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. They way the Senate Republicans passed the measure was instead of having a bill on national energy policy or even a specific bill on drilling in ANWR, the Republicans simply tacked it onto the entire federal budget. The vote today was a vote to remove the amendment authorizing drilling for oil in ANWR. It provided a fillibuster-proof way to tack ANWR onto the omnibus spending bill and make it politically (and logistically) more difficult. It was somewhat heartening that 4 Republicans joined the 44 Democrats and Independent Jim Jeffords (I-VT) and the margin of failure of the amendment (to remove opening ANWR for drilling) was small demonstrating the narrowness of support for the proposal even by so many people who depend upon oil company money for their re-election campaigns.
Even if the vote had been more legitimate and did not reek of the odor of forced legislation, the proposal to open ANWR to drilling does nothing for the supply of oil (it would only provide 2.5% of the U.S.'s consumption and only be economically viable if oil stays above $35 per barrel, not exactly an incentive we want to give the government). In the absence of a comprehensive energy policy that is not created by the energy companies, the opening of ANWR to drilling may even reduce the incentives to develop new sources of energy. Overall, opening ANWR to oil drilling (and the way the Republicans did it) is a stinker of an idea, even aside of the environmental impact.