A $2.6 trillion federal budget blueprint approved by Congress late Thursday may clear the way for a Republican plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, according to congressional aides.

Protestors on the West Lawn of the Capitol, feast on a baked Alaska weighing in at more than 900 pounds, Friday, April 22, 2005. The demonstration was held to protest opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

The budget plan does not specifically mention ANWR drilling by name.

But Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican who heads the Senate Budget Committee, indicated its language was carefully crafted to ensure that Senate legislation to give oil companies access to the Alaskan wildlife refuge would not be subject to a filibuster.

The budget blueprint included instructions to Senate and House energy panels to find about $2.4 billion in new revenue over five years, an amount roughly equal to what the federal government has estimated it could raise by leasing ANWR to oil companies.

The budget plan for fiscal 2006 sets general parameters for Congress to use in writing specific federal spending bills for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1.

Last month, the Senate passed its version of the annual budget plan and included a provision that would raise more than $5 billion by offering drilling rights in the Alaska refuge to oil and gas companies. Alaska would keep half of the money.

The Senate inserted the ANWR language in its budget resolution because budget bills are passed with a simple majority and cannot be filibustered under Senate rules. A coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats in the Senate has previously blocked drilling in the refuge.

The House passed an $8 billion energy bill this month that included selling drilling rights in the refuge.

ANWR, about the size of South Carolina, sprawls across more than 19 million acres in northeastern Alaska. The government has estimated energy companies would find it cost-effective to recover at least 6 billion barrels of oil from ANWR, if prices were at or above $35 a barrel.

Environmental groups oppose drilling in ANWR, saying that road building and industrial activity would hurt caribou, polar bears and other animals that use the refuge's coastal plain as a nursery.

© 2005 Reuters Ltd

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