House has new idea to win ANWR drilling

"We did not put this together to be some political gimmick," insisted Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.

He all but begged reporters to take his bill seriously.

"This is very different from previous approaches," he said Wednesday at a press conference in the Capitol.

The selling point of his bill is that it would use the federal revenue from ANWR drilling to fund alternative energy programs.

There's not much doubt the bill can pass the House. In the past five years, the House has repeatedly voted to allow oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The bills have died in the Senate.

But this bill is different, Nunes said. It would send ANWR lease and royalty revenues to a new "American-made energy trust fund." The trust fund would support tax credits to subsidize solar energy, coal-to-liquid fuels and new sources of ethanol.

Thirteen Republicans and nine Democrats signed on as co-sponsors of HR 5890 by Wednesday afternoon.

The U.S. government's share of the ANWR money -- 50 percent, with the other half going to Alaska, according to the bill -- could be $39 billion over 30 years, the bill sponsors say.

That would make "the largest investment in American energy in our nation's history," Nunes said.

The environmental lobby, though, has fiercely fought any bill that would open ANWR to drilling.

"It doesn't matter if it gives money to good alternative energy research and development," said Melinda Pierce of the Sierra Club. "Too many in Congress would balk at the notion that we have to drill the Arctic to get money for good energy solutions."

The strategy of trying to pass an ANWR bill by tying it to legislative goodies is not new.

In December, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, proposed using Arctic drilling revenues to pay for border security, disaster relief and low- income energy assistance.

Former Sen. Frank Murkowski tried to pick up votes in 2002 by tying ANWR to pension benefits for steel workers. Two years later, a House bill proposed using ANWR revenues to pay health care benefits to coal workers. Even the alternative-energy angle has been tried before. The Bush administration and past House bills have proposed to dedicate a portion of ANWR revenues to develop renewable energy.

Nunes, though, said his bill is unique because it would devote all of the federal ANWR revenues for that purpose.

Daily News reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at lruskin@adn.com or in Washington at 1-202-383-0007.