These provisions included opening production of the 10-02 Area of ANWR to oil and gas exploration as well as promotion of oil shale production, approval of the Keystone Pipeline and the expansion of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) exploration.  The energy subjects of the bill were originally derived from the provisions of the PIONEERS Act, HR3408, recently passed in the House.  (The PIONEERS Act itself was a break off “pay-for” for the House version of the Transport Bill.)  The Roberts Amendment also contained a myriad of other subjects including: energy tax credits for weatherizing homes and buildings; tax credits for bio diesel fuels; tax deductions for school teachers; capital gains tax revisions, and a number of other tax issues involving railroads and charities.  With so many issues in one amendment the translation of the vote on the Roberts Amendment is extremely difficult even by Hill standards.  Many members supported broad swaths of the proposal yet were fatally hung up on a single issue that they felt strongly on and thus stated opposition.  Ultimately on vote day the amendment did not have an air of political feasibility behind it and with only a few minutes of debate was voted upon quickly and died.  Both Alaskan Senators voted in favor of S.1826 yet expressed strong reservations on the OCS exploration clause which would not have included revenue sharing and would have excluded Alaskan OCS in its scope.
S.1826 was accompanied by 11 other “non-germane” amendments spread over two days of voting leading up to a final passage vote of the Senate Transportation Bill S. 1831.  In a deal struck between Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Majority Leader Harry Reid a total of 30 amendments would be allowed to be considered with 18 being “germane” (about specific provisions in the main bill) and 12 “non-germane” (new items or issues to the main bill).  Non-germane amendments generally did not enjoy support of the majority, but regardless, all but 3 failed to reach 60 votes.  The 60 vote cloture agreement is a way the leadership can allow votes to take place on issues they do not favor knowing it will be highly unlikely or completely unlikely they will achieve the votes for passage.  Senator Reid who strongly opposes all the energy provisions of the Roberts Amendment, could safely allow it to come to vote knowing it would not come anywhere near the 60 votes required.  Other major issues such as Keystone XL pipeline approval, which previously passed the Senate, also failed to achieve 60 votes as amendments to the Transport Bill.   A full list of all the amendments to the Transportation Bill and their fate can be found here:

http://t4america.org/blog/2012/03/08/senate-reaches-agreement-on-amendments-will-begin-debating-transportation-bill-today/

The vote on S. 1826 is the first time the US Senate has voted on an ANWR provision, albeit in a package deal, since 2007.  Seven Republican Senators voted against the amendment and three Democrats voted in favor of the amendment.  Bills that involve ANWR, OCS or other oil provisions often end up with partisan vote tallies on Capitol Hill much to the chagrin of energy producing states where nonpartisan support is common.  Press reports on the amendment often were headlined with linking the vote tally to ANWR support specifically when the comments by several Senators on their votes had other issues on their minds when they voted.  Certainly the extreme diversity of the Amendment’s provisions allowed opposition to rest assured there were enough issues of conflict that strong support would be fractured at best.  This ultimately proved to be true. 
The Transportation bill eventually passed the Senate 74-22 and now moves to the House where Speaker John Boehner will try and match it to his version titled HR. 7.  The bill must be passed before March 31 to beat the funding deadline imposed by Congress last year. 

View the Roberts Amendment here.

The vote on the Amendment can be viewed here:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00038