ANWR Is On Again

This is good news for an oil-hungry nation:

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), narrowly rejecting a Democratic attempt to strike the plan from a budget bill.

Drilling supporters said developing the refuge's 10.4 billion barrels of crude would raise $2.4 billion in leasing fees for the government, reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil imports and create thousands of American jobs.

However, it remains far from clear whether a final version of a federal budget-cutting package can be approved by both chambers. The U.S. House of Representatives plan would open ANWR to drilling, but also aims to cut politically sensitive programs such as food stamps and Medicaid.

ANWR is "the nation's single greatest prospect for future oil," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.

Libs and environwackos - spare me the rhetoric about how it won't affect prices and will take 10 years to come to market. If we'd gotten after this 10 years ago as we should have, we'd be reaping the benefits today. It's time to get going.