According to Inside Climate News, the Senate Budget Committee released a “draft” that ties their big “tax reform” bill to opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
The committee was instructed to submit the legislation under a special process—called reconciliation—that would allow it to pass with a simple majority, instead of requiring a two-thirds majority. This would allow it to pass without any votes from Democrats. The move is similar to what the House did when its budget was proposed in July.
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"There is bipartisan opposition to drilling in our nation's most pristine wildlife refuge, and any effort to include it in the tax package would only further imperil the bill as a whole," Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement.
Republicans and their fossil fuel overlords have been drooling over the money they could make drilling in areas like the ANWR for some time now. Our current orangutan in office has threatened Alaska’s energy industry over their Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s inability to swallow the poison capsule that was the numerous “repeal and replace” bills. Unfortunately, just because Sen. Mukowski made the only humane decision on her party’s death-panel legislation, that doesn’t mean she isn’t living in an oil-rich pocketbook.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who has long advocated for opening ANWR to drilling and who heads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was among those pleased with the inclusion of the order.
"This provides an excellent opportunity for our committee to raise $1 billion in federal revenues while creating jobs and strengthening our nation's long-term energy security," she said in a statement. She did not directly acknowledge an ANWR connection.
The reason they need to “raise $1 billion dollars” is so they can give it to people with billions of dollars. Just remember that.