• Republicans plan to use the budget process to press for drilling in the 1002 Area of ANWR.  This is to circumvent the possibility of a filibuster.


• The bill authorizing drilling would have been drafted by now, but Katrina and the Roberts hearings have pushed that date back to October 26.


• The bill will require a parliamentary ruling on whether or not drilling in ANWR is "extraneous material" to the budget process.


• The Energy Information Administration has estimated that the potential consumer benefit of drilling in ANWR is less than 1.5 cents/gallon.

As someone who has followed this issue for a while, I'll say that the amount of disinformation on this topic is huge.  The chief beneficiary will be Exxon-Mobil, the remaining supporter of Arctic Power, the pro-drilling lobbying group.

What's interesting is that Senator Stevens (R-Alaska) appears to have abandoned the Energy Independence baloney that others have used to justify drilling.  Instead, his argument is drilling in ANWR is necessary to keep from busting the budget:

"If you look at it, ANWR's dollar sign is $2.4 billion," he said. "That's needed to keep this budget balanced now, as far as the routine budget. There's no question about that now. I think they've looked for other areas but the budget itself can't be approved unless somewhere the Energy Committee can raise $2.4 billion. I don't see any other place in the economy they can do it other than ANWR."

Let's see if I get this:  we've spent $200 billion on Iraq and plan to spend another $200 billion on New Orleans.  And ANWR is supposed to save us from fiscal disaster?