Posted on 10/07/2005 9:29:55 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Washington -- New legislation moving through Congress would end the quarter-century-old moratorium on drilling off the coast of California and other states, and shift the power to block development in coastal waters from Congress to governors and state legislatures.
The proposal by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, also adds a sweetener to boost offshore oil and gas production: States that allow drilling off their coasts would gain a greater share of royalty payments from energy companies, which usually go to the federal government.
The measure is stirring debate in coastal states from California to Florida, with environmentalists and some lawmakers saying the measure could weaken existing protections and spark conflicts between neighboring states that disagree over whether to allow oil and gas rigs off their shores.
Critics warn the new effort may break up the unity of coastal lawmakers, who have agreed each year since 1982 to renew the federal moratorium on drilling off most of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
"What you basically see is a divide-and-conquer strategy," said Richard Charter, co-chairman of the National Outer Continental Shelf Coalition, an environmental group opposing the legislation. "It has been a bipartisan, multistate, bicoastal agreement for 25 years among members of the House and Senate, who have perpetuated the agreement year after year. All of a sudden, that is being blown asunder."
Pombo, who supports increasing domestic oil and gas production, insists his measure would give states more control by allowing governors and state legislatures to tell the U.S. secretary of the interior whether they want drilling within 125 miles of their shore.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Any chance of this going anywhere in the People's Republic of Silliness?
Sure, why not? Kind of like the liberal attacks on the long-ago established agreements of the Consitution.
This is a bad idea. The Federal moratorium needs to be ended and my State needs to be stripped of any ability to regulate oil production. We are hurting the rest of the nation with our stupid environmental laws. Our coast should be lined with rigs and we shouldn't get a single dime of revenue from them. We don't deserve that money after what we've done to the rest of you these past 25 years.
Pombo for Senate!
No wonder the Dems blamed Bush for Katrina! He used a storm to make this happen.
Of course you have. He's my former and future congressman.
Even this new mechanism mentioned in the article where-by the coastal states would get half the royalty is not a new idea. This was proposed in CARA 2000 and CARA 2001. This bill was a very hot topic at FR back then.
As I recall, that would have been funded at 3 bil per year(or was it 7 bil per year?). It would have been split among the coastal and Great Lake States based on the formula of 25% based on miles of shoreline, 25% based on coastal population, and 50% based on the amount of oil production within 250 miles of a states shore line.
The interior states(who would not have recieved a dime) were able to block the bill and a compromise was reached that lasted for 5 years. This compromise will expire next year and that is why the subject is being raised again.
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