Dale Bumpers: “I want to in the interest of fairness and honesty in the debate say to my good friend, Senator Stevens from Alaska…”

“I want to in the interest of fairness and honesty in the debate say to my good friend, Senator Stevens from Alaska, that, number one, while we are debating what I consider to be a terrible policy of scoring asset sales, in all fairness to the Senators from Alaska, there is no proposal to sell ANWR. There is a proposal to lease it. It is calculated to bring $2 billion. But the Federal Government only gets half of that. Is that not correct, Senator? And we would proceed to withdraw royalties once it is developed. So, as I say, in the interest of fairness, while we are debating asset sales, ANWR is technically not an asset sale. And I must confess that my principal objection to leasing ANWR is because I consider it bad environmental policy. That is not to say that at some point in the not too distant future in an emergency or something we will not consider it. I might consider it myself. And I know all the arguments. I have heard the chairman of the Energy Committee, with whom I sit on a regular basis, make all those arguments for opening ANWR. We just happen to have a disagreement on that. I consider ANWR just like I do people who save money as a nest egg for their old age.”