Republican Tactic Aims to Open Eastern Gulf, Arctic to Oil Rigs - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-18/republicans-may-use-budget-to-open-arctic-atlantic-to-oil-rigs
Congressional Republicans have found a way to use the federal budget to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling — and they don’t plan on stopping there.
GOP leaders in the House and Senate are exploring ways to also expand drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans through congressional budget rules that allow them to pass major policy changes on a simple majority vote.
“There are other opportunities for us,” Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in an interview. “There is a significant way that we can help with the budget process.”
Money from selling drilling rights and royalties from oil and gas production would be a revenue-raiser that could help offset some of the tax cuts Republicans are proposing. The House has instructed its Natural Resources Committee to find ways to generate $5 billion in revenue over the next decade. And the Senate is set to vote as soon as this week on a budget plan imposing a $1 billion target on Murkowski’s natural resources committee.