The US Senate voted yesterday, by a thin margin, to allow energy corporations to drill for oil in a protected Alaskan wildlife refuge. Yesterday’s 51 to 49 vote is the first of several needed before the policy could take affect, but it alarmed environmentalists who have struggled to preserve the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) from developers.

The Bush administration, which received $2.5 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry during the last election cycle, has pushed hard to open the Arctic Refuge to drilling, arguing that developing domestic oil sources is crucial for weaning the US from foreign oil dependence.

But conservationists say the Reserve holds relatively small amounts of oil and the ecological trade-off is not worth the 1.9 to 10.4 billion barrels of oil estimated to lie beneath the surface. The US uses 7.3 billion barrels of oil annually, 948 million of which are imported, according to the Energy Information Administration, which is part of the US Department of Energy.

"This was really a vote for big oil, not for the solid majority of Americans who oppose turning America's last great wilderness into a vast, polluted oil field," said Karen Wayland, legislative director of the National Resources Defense Council, in a press statement. "If the oil industry can drill in the Arctic Refuge, then no place, no matter how pristine, will be safe."

The Senate measure will be included as an amendment to a budget resolution, which remains to be reconciled with the House version that does not contain a similar amendment. If the amendment emerges intact from joint negotiations, the Senate must still approve it again before it becomes law.