Ron Wyden: “the legislative rider attached to the Defense appropriations conference report that would open the Arctic Wildlife…”

“the legislative rider attached to the Defense appropriations conference report that would open the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to drilling gives the same two companies the Alaska Gasline Port Authority charges with colluding to withhold Alaskan gas supplies a tremendous sweetheart economic deal. In addition to being an abuse of the legislative process, attaching this rider to the Defense appropriations bill, in my view, is bad environmental policy, bad budget policy, and most particularly bad energy policy. As a result of this rider, the Defense spending bill, which contains money critical for our troops, is getting held hostage for special interest legislation for the oil industry. The rider that was grafted onto the Defense bill provides unprecedented waivers for Federal environmental and other laws, including the National Wildlife Refuge Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Federal Mineral Leasing Act. The Arctic drilling legislation also overrides current law to reduce the State of Alaska's share of the revenue produced by Arctic oil drilling. Under current law, 90 percent of those receipts would be paid to the State of Alaska and the remaining 10 percent to the U.S. Treasury. The rider that was plucked from the budget reconciliation spending bill and grafted onto the Defense appropriations conference report changes the allocation in current law to permit the Federal Government to retain 50 percent of the receipts.…”