The U.S. House of Representatives gave environmentalists plenty of headaches yesterday. First, House members backed oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as part of broad legislation designed to increase domestic energy production and provide tax incentives to the oil and power industries. Some see the move as beating a dead horse, since the Senate rejected drilling in the refuge last month and Republican senators said they would not try to revive the issue. As part of the same legislation, the House also rejected a proposal that would have toughened up fuel-economy standards by requiring cars and light trucks to use 5 percent less fuel by 2010. Other bad news from this bad bill: It would exempt companies from federal royalty payments on some natural gas deposits, streamline the licensing process for hydroelectric dams, and make it easier to build gas pipelines and power lines on federal land, among other unpleasant possibilities.
