The Sierra Club's Hawai'i chapter is expected today to endorse U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka's re-election despite the liberal Democrat's support for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Akaka has acknowledged that his votes for drilling are among the few where he has split from his party's leadership. The issue has also damaged him politically among environmentalists who have made protecting the refuge a national priority.

Akaka released a statement in September vowing that if he were re-elected, he would visit Alaska next summer and meet with the Inupiat, the Gwich'in and others and re-examine the effects of drilling on the refuge. The statement has been circulated in the environmental community and was apparently one of the factors used by the Sierra Club in its decision to endorse Akaka.

"This fact-finding mission will ensure that the decisions I make in Congress continue to accurately reflect the situation on the ground and the self-determination desires of Alaska's indigenous people," Akaka wrote.

The Sierra Club did not endorse Akaka or U.S. Rep. Ed Case in the Democratic primary in September because neither candidate earned a two-thirds vote of the chapter's executive board, according to Lance Holter, the chapter's political chairman.

Case is a strong opponent of Arctic drilling and the issue was one of the main differences between the candidates in the primary.

Windward state Rep. Cynthia Thielen, Akaka's Republican opponent in November, has blasted Akaka's support for oil drilling as inexcusable. Thielen was endorsed by the Sierra Club for her re-election this year in House District 50 (Kailua, Mokapu).

Holter would not comment last night on whether the Sierra Club would endorse Akaka but three sources familiar with the process believe the senator will get the endorsement. Akaka is scheduled to appear at a Sierra Club news conference this morning outside the state Capitol.

Thielen said last night that she was surprised.

"I think the board is naive to endorse Akaka based upon his 11th-hour promise to visit the Alaskan tribes next summer," Thielen said in a statement. "Until now, Akaka has clearly supported drilling for oil in the Arctic wilderness, in the Gulf Coast, and supported the Bush administration's energy policy, which gives only token support to renewable energy."

Thielen announced she has been endorsed by Christie Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator; and John Harrison, the environmental coordinator at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa's Environmental Center.

Thielen also has released her first television advertisements of her campaign, which detail her support for renewable energy.