Skip to main content CNN.com allpolitics.com
allpolitics.com
CNN TV
SERVICES
CNN TV
EDITIONS

Norton: U.S. would drill responsibly in Alaska


In this story:

California offshore drilling moratorium

24 'no' votes in Senate

Refuge last Alaskan area off-limits to drilling

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



WASHINGTON (CNN) - U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton indicated on Saturday that the resumption of oil drilling off the California coast was possible after the year 2012 and again promised that oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, if allowed, would not harm the environment.

"President Bush has said that he would honor the moratorium that exists on drilling off of California and Florida," Norton said during an interview on CNN's "Evans, Novak, Hunt & Shields."

"But it is a long-term issue to deal with the energy problem. The people of California know already how much of a problem that we have in providing energy over the long run." Norton was referring to the past 18 consecutive days of dangerously low electricity reserves in California.

California offshore drilling moratorium

A moratorium on U.S. oil drilling off California was imposed by Congress in 1990 and is set to expire in 2012, according to the Americans for Democratic Action, an environmental group. On September 24, then-Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney -- a former oil industry executive -- said he was against California offshore drilling, but expressed support for new oil ventures in the Arctic Refuge.

During the Senate hearing on Norton's nomination, Democratic senators expressed fear that Norton, a former Colorado attorney general, would impose environmentally harmful policies on federally owned and managed land.

"Her record strongly indicates that she will heavily tilt that balance away from conservation, away from understanding what a sacred duty we have," Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minnesota, said.

24 'no' votes in Senate

Only Attorney General John Ashcroft's hearing resulted in more negative votes for confirmation in the Senate. On January 30, Norton was approved by a 75-to-24 vote, with Democrats split down the middle.

Norton, when discussing the Bush administration proposal to drill for petroleum in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, said the refuge "is something that can only be used for oil and gas exploration if Congress is convinced and if the president is convinced that that can be done in a responsible, environmental way," Norton said. "It cannot be done until Congress approves it."

Republicans hold a slim majority in both houses of Congress.

President Bush has said his energy policy will be aimed at cutting U.S. dependence on imported oil and at helping low-income consumers.

Norton said many methods can ease the impact of drilling on the environment, "for example, the drilling only taking place in the dead of winter, only on icy roads -- as opposed to asphalt across the tundra, being sure that the drilling is done with very little space on the surface reaching a lot of space underneath."

Refuge last Alaskan area off-limits to drilling

The coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge represents the last 5 percent of the state that remains off-limits to drilling, according to the Sierra Club, a national environmental group.

The refuge stretches from the mountains of the Brooks Range to the Beaufort Sea in northeast Alaska. The Sierra Club describes the refuge as a "narrow 1.5 million-acre coastal plain," and says drilling there would be "as shortsighted as damming the Grand Canyon for hydroelectric power or tapping Old Faithful for geothermal energy. It would be as foolhardy as burning the Mona Lisa to keep you warm."



RELATED STORIES:
Senate debates Norton nomination
January 29, 2001

RELATED SITES:
Department of the Interior
  • Gale A. Norton

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.


 Search   


Back to the top