US House sus­pends push for Alas­ka oil drilling:

Repub­li­can lead­ers in the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives aban­doned, at least tem­porar­i­ly, a dri­ve to open Alaska’s Nation­al Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling after con­clud­ing on Wednes­day the ini­tia­tive was threat­en­ing pas­sage of a huge bill to cut spending.

“ANWR and OCS will be out” of the leg­is­la­tion, said House Bud­get Com­mit­tee Chair­man Jim Nus­sle, an Iowa Republican.

Besides the Alas­ka oil drilling ini­tia­tive, the House spend­ing-reduc­tion bill had also called for open­ing out­er-con­ti­nen­tal shelf, or off­shore areas, to oil and gas drilling.

The con­fer­ence com­mit­tee may try to keep the ANWR drilling, but here’s hop­ing they don’t, and that the prin­ci­pled Repub­li­cans in the House hold their ground.

Check out the maps of ANWR. Very cool.