Kerry, LCV Argue That Arctic Drilling is Murkowski Electoral Ploy
Anthony York February 6, 2002

WASHINGTON--The Bush administration's energy plan has been at the center of debate on Capitol Hill. Senator Kerry (D-MA) has recently spoken out against the Bush plan and laid out his own plan that has environment groups applauding. The Bush plan to support fuel cell technology is being considered an unviable alternative to raising CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) Standards, a central tenet to Kerry's energy plan. "I think it absolutely is meant as an alternative to CAFE," said the League of Conservation Voters' Scott Stoermer. "It's one of these proposals that this administration has become famous for because it's got no teeth in it. It just exists on paper and has absolutely no bearing on reality." Kerry and the league have also found fault with Bush's plan to drill in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). Kerry and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., have both threatened to filibuster any effort to add ANWR drilling to the Daschle bill. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has threatened to hold up any bill without an ANWR provision. But environmentalists are convinced Republicans don't have the votes to open the refuge for drilling. The push for drilling in the reserve, they say, is a political ploy meant to bolster the candidacy of Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, who is running for governor this year. "The question is, will someone like Ted Stevens, who is not a grenade thrower, go to the mat for what amounts to being a feather in Frank Murkowski's gubernatorial cap?" Stoermer said. "After they spent weeks talking about Tom Daschle the obstructionist, how willing are they going to be to hold up a national energy policy in the middle of a war, over Arctic drilling?"