Senator Collins Rises in Opposition to ANWR Oil Drilling

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to express my opposition to the inclusion of provisions in the fiscal year 2004 budget resolution that would provide for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The United States critically needs to reduce its dependence on foreign oil. Some believe we can drill our way to energy independence. That is simply not the case.

If we were today to start drilling in ANWR, our largest remaining domestic oil reserve, we would do almost nothing to decrease our reliance on foreign oil. It is a cold, hard fact: the United States uses about 25 percent of the world's oil, but only possesses 3 percent of the world's known oil reserves.

The Department of Energy has projected that if current trends continue, we will need an additional 5 million barrels of oil per day by 2020. Even under the most optimistic scenarios, ANWR could supply only a small fraction of that amount.

The alternative is to increase energy efficiency and develop alternative technologies. Simply increasing fuel economy standards for automobiles would do far more to reduce our imports of foreign oil than would drilling in the Arctic. Not only that, but it would also save Americans billions of dollars.

Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the right thing to do for the environment. Along with increased fuel efficiency and renewable energy production, protecting the Arctic is also the right thing to do for the economy and for America's energy security. Most important, it is the right thing to do for future generations.

I call on my colleagues to join me in support of removing provisions from the fiscal year 2004 budget resolution that would open ANWR to oil drilling.