ANWR Oil Exploration Act

[Geoff Zalla]

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

Mr. Geoff Zalla

Submits

A BILL

To promote the drilling of oil in certain areas of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge.

BE IT ENACTED by the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States.


SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This bill shall be cited and known as the `ANWR Oil Exploration Act of 2008'.

SECTION 2. DEFINITIONS.

(1) For the purposes of this Act, ANWR shall refer to the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, a region in the northeastern corner of the state of Alaska, that consists of 19,049,236 acres.

(2) For the purposes of this Act, Oil corporations shall refer to environmental regulations to begin limited drilling within the Artic National Wildlife Refuge.


SECTION 3. FINDINGS.

Congress finds that -

(1)Although oil drilling is only a temporary action, the ANWR reserves, which contain somewhere between 4.5 and 11.8 billion barrels worth of oil, may offer the United States a temporary supply.

(2)Due to increasing gas prices at the pumps, a long-term solution will be too drawn out in order to effectively relieve the problem, so temporary drilling will ease prices until new programs can be installed.

(3)Given the extreme environment and precious eco-system that exists in ANWR, measures should be taken to ensure that the drilling is done in safe, environmentally friendly ways.

SECTION 4. PROVISIONS.

(1)The Congress of the United States of America shall allow for corporations to begin limited oil drilling operations in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge.

(2)The Congress of the United States of America shall require that all corporations that wishing to conduct oil drilling operations follow environmentally safe guidelines while drilling in ANWR by having said corporations sign contracts.

(3)The Congress of the United States of America shall fine those corporations that violate the said contract(s) an amount of $1,000,000 per violation.

(4)The Congress of the United States of America shall only allow for drilling in 1/4 of ANWR and keep the remaining 3/4 protected and off limits.

SECTION 5. ENACTMENT.

This bill shall be enacted upon the President's signature.

SECTION 6. PLAIN ENGLISH SUMMARY.
This bill would allow for limited drilling in ANWR provided that corporations take steps to care for the environment and conduct themselves in a clean fashion.

[Phil Strunk]

TQ1: Would this bill be able to be expanded progressively so that we could allow more drilling?

[Justin Boyd]

Who would monitor the drilling of this very delicate enviroment? I would hate to see another Exxon Valdez incident to happen. again.

Would you interest in incresing the violation amount? In 2007 Exxon made $11.6 billion in probit and Cherovron made $61.41 billion in profits. 1 millions is only a a dollar compare to these companyies. I belive the violation amount should be alot higher to make sure that these companies make sure that they conduct oil drilling operations safty guildline perfectly.

[Geoff Zalla]

Would this bill be able to be expanded progressively so that we could allow more drilling?

I don't see any reason why not, but I think that certain parts of ANWR should be off limits.

Who would monitor this?

I was thinking the EPA.

Should we increase the Penatly?

Currently, I see no reason to increase the penalty as I feel that it is already high enough. While the oil corporations do have big pockets, they'll already be pouring millions into obtaining evironmentally friendly equipment and, in order to work at this site, you'll need secure and safe equipment. So, this will be a pretty big price to drill already. The fine, I feel, is good as it is.

[Justin Boyd]

The Northeastern corner of teh state we are drilling on, what doesthis location consist of? (wildlife , ect)

Because this is a tempory solution to teh energy problem. What will be the long term plan for the energy issue? I believe we should have a long term solution beofre we have a short term solution. We have to address both problem with a plan.

What will be the long term effects of drillin in the gentle part of our country?

[Justin Boyd]

CS