Republicans push for 'energy security bill'

From Kate Snow
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Seizing on concerns about the security of the nation's energy supply in light of the recent terror attacks, House and Senate Republicans called Tuesday for a modified "energy security" bill.

"We need to act and act quickly," said House Majority Whip Tom Delay, R-Texas. "We suffered a terrible attack. Our military is ready to respond. The airlines are struggling. Economic growth is slowing. American families can't afford spiraling energy costs."

As a key to their plan, Republicans are again pushing a controversial measure to open the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for oil exploration.

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Delay suggested that opening ANWR "could meet the daily energy requirements of our armed forces for an entire year." Or, he suggested, "it could replace all the oil from Iraq for the next 50 years."

The House has already passed an energy bill that included a provision allowing limited drilling in ANWR, but that bill stalled in the Senate.

The leading Republican on the Senate Energy Committee complained about the Senate's lack of movement. "We've been languishing on it," said Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska.

Monday, Murkowski and other Senate Republicans sent a letter to Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-New Mexico, in which they urged Bingaman and the Democrats to consider expediting a scaled-down version of the president's original bill.

A spokeswoman for Bingaman said the committee has been exploring what kind of response is needed in light of the September 11 attacks but said it is premature to talk about specifics. The Senate Energy Committee will hold a closed-door meeting Wednesday to hear from a member of the Bush administration and representatives of the energy industry on the state of the nation's energy infrastructure.

Murkowski's proposed "Homeland Energy Security Act" would include measures meant to protect the nation's dams, power generating sources, transmission lines, pipelines, electricity grid, and tankers moving into ports.

It also includes measures to increase domestic supplies of energy, including the controversial ANWR provision.

House Energy Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-Louisiana, was adamant about the need to tap domestic supplies of oil.

"It is foolish for this country to go into a period of wartime footing and to still have six-tenths of every gallon of gasoline come from foreign sources," said Tauzin. "When the price of gasoline began spiking the day after the September 11 events and we had to go on the floor and assure Americans we had ample supply, the first thing we had to tell them is we'd checked with OPEC and OPEC was gonna keep a supply.

"We had to check with Iraq to make sure we'd have oil the next day. Now how stupid is that? What kind of a crazy policy is it for America to face the world of terrorists in the Middle East and still think that six-tenths of every gallon of gasoline that we put in our fuel tanks is safe?

"The Senate needs to move this bill and it needs to move it now," he said.