Senators Say BP's Alaska Problems Doom ANWR Chances

    Republican senators said today controversy over BP's management of its Alaskan oil pipelines undermines their effort to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to exploration. "We won't get the votes we had already on ANWR, not to mention moving ahead,"Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Domenici said during a hearing on the BP controversy. Directing his remarks at BP officials, Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., said, "You have completely set back any hope we had to get that bill passed in the Congress of the United States, I hope you know that."

Congressional efforts to allow drilling in ANWR have stalled because of opposition from most Democrats and moderate Republicans. But BP's past assurances that its operations in Alaska's North Slope were environmentally sound could undermine similar claims that other domestic production is safe.

   BP shut down a major oil pipeline Aug. 6 following the discovery of corrosion, shutting off flow from the nation's largest oilfield in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay. Lawmakers are investigating why BP did not perform regular maintenance on this pipeline and a second Prudhoe Bay pipeline that leaked close to 200,000 gallons of oil from a corroded pipe in March. Thomas Barrett, administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, testified that BP's mismanagement of unregulated low-stress pipelines in Prudhoe Bay was "an anomaly" and did not represent the safety and maintenance performance of the industry as a whole. Barrett's agency issued a proposed rule Aug. 31 that would for the first time regulate about 25 percent of low-stress pipelines. Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., suggested regulating a higher percentage considering the energy and environmental stakes.

Domenici said he wants committee staff to examine that idea.

"It's a suggestion that just comes right out and hits you in the face," Domenici said. Today's hearing was the second since BP shut down the pipeline. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee also will hold a hearing Wednesday.

   Regarding another domestic energy issue, Domenici said talks are slow on offshore energy legislation. "They're pretty distant right now," he said. "But we're going to try to put them back together." He said the Senate is still trying to persuade the House to accept a Senate-passed bill as is. "We can't get anything other than ours considered," Domenici said. Four senators have written him asking him to refrain from appointing conferees unless the House agrees to accept the Senate version.

Senate Minority Leader Reid has threatened a filibuster if the Senate bill does not emerge from conference. "We can't pass an amended bill," he said. "We can't even get it up to discuss."

Reid, he said, "is holding the jackhammer." -- by Darren Goode