Richard Pombo: “This is a difficult amendment. It really is because much of what my colleagues on the left have to say about ANWR I…”

“This is a difficult amendment. It really is because much of what my colleagues on the left have to say about ANWR I agree with. It is a unique, beautiful area that should be preserved. I absolutely agree with them, and I do not think that that should be part of the debate. When we look at the north slope of Alaska, an area that is nearly the size of California, nearly 100 million acres and we take ANWR out of that, it is an area that is nearly 20 million acres, about the size of South Carolina. What we are proposing is that we take a very small portion of that 100 million acres, the 20 million that is ANWR, 2,000 acres that would be set aside. I have been up to the Arctic, and the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) is right. He has been in the summer and he has been there in the winter, and so have I; and I can tell my colleagues that it is a fascinating place. In the summer it is fascinating, and in the winter it is darn cold; but it is just as fascinating. I, quite frankly, love it up there. I think it is a beautiful place that deserves the protection of this House and of this Congress.”