Reply #8: House stays up late over GOP effort to open refuge to oil drilling

[Judi Lynn]

Dec. 19, 2005, 1:56AM
House stays up late over GOP effort to open refuge to oil drilling


By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Republican leaders huddled into the morning hours today trying to ensure passage of a bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alaska to oil and gas exploration.

House GOP leaders worked to quell a rebellion by moderate Republicans unhappy with the strategy to attach the drilling language to a Defense Department spending bill.

The battle could become even more intense later this week in the Senate, where Democrats have vowed to try to strip the drilling language from the legislation.
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Opening a portion of the refuge to oil and gas exploration has been the linchpin of the White House's strategy to boost domestic oil production and has been a major objective of the nation's oil companies dating to the Carter administration.
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http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3533838.html
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