Oily

As you probably know by now, the provision to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has been removed by House Republicans from their humongous budget bill. One small step for moderate Republicans. One giant leap for Mother Nature.

According to an article in the Washington Post, 25 moderate Republicans signed a letter asking Repub leaders to strike the provision. Since virtually every House Democrat is hanging tough and planning to vote against the budget bill, the Repubs had to capitulate in order to try and save the bill. Given the unpopularity of many other parts of the spending bill, there's still no guarantee it will pass even with the ANWR provision stricken.

Here's what Senator Pete Domenici's spokesperson had to say about the move:

Marnie Funk, a spokeswoman for Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said that Domenici considers the ANWR provision, which the Senate approved, "one of the most critical components" in the budget package. "He is committed to coming back to the Senate from the conference with ANWR intact," she said.

I wonder if ol' Pete also believes the Scroogelike cuts in spending on Medicaid, student loans, prescription drugs and more also included in the Senate version of the BushCo budget are "critical components" in the weak effort to offset, at least a tiny bit, the transfer of $70 BILLION more dollars in tax cuts to our wealthiest citizens.

Click if you'd like to let Pete know what you think about his priorities as the official oil boy of the Bush administration.

The Senate passed their version of the budget bill with a provision to drill in ANWR. If the House version passes, we can expect a lively fight to achieve a unified conference committee version of the bill, with Pete leading the effort to reinsert the ANWR drilling provision.

To refresh yourself on what is at stake here, check out our earlier post on the ANWR photos of Subhankar Banerjee.