Posted on 07/25/2006 5:42:38 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The Senate, trying to show voters it is tackling energy problems, is taking up legislation that would open 8.3 million acres of the central Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling.
Opponents of the bill, which would affect an area believed to contain large amounts of natural gas and 1.3 billion barrels of oil, fear it's a first step to lifting a drilling moratorium that for decades has protected 85 percent of the country's coastal waters from New England to Alaska.
Senators were expected to vote Wednesday to begin debate on the legislation, a largely procedural move that could set up a final vote later this week or early next.
A month ago, the House passed a much broader offshore energy development bill that would lift the ban on oil and gas drilling that has been in effect for 25 years in most waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico. That bill would still bar drilling within 50 miles, but it would open waters beyond that to energy companies unless a state specifically acts to protect waters within 100 miles of shore.
Senate Republican leaders said there aren't the votes to push such a broad measure through the Senate.
Instead, the GOP leaders, along with a few Democrats, favor a more limited bill that directs the Interior Department to begin selling oil and gas leases in 8.3 million acres of the central Gulf. It does not address drilling elsewhere.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Tuesday that if the bill passes he would work to keep it focused and limited to the 8.3 million acres in negotiations with the House.
That may be hard to do.
Rep. Richard Pombo (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., a key sponsor of the House bill passed last month, said Tuesday he saw no way the House would accept the limited Senate legislation as a substitute for its bill.
Sen. Pete Domenici (news, bio, voting record), R-N.M., chief sponsor of the Senate bill, argued that the additional oil and gas found in Lease Area 181 in the central Gulf could "bring enough oil and gas to market to ease supply constraints and stabilize energy prices."
The 2 million acres in Area 181 and 6.3 million deep-water acres to the south that also would be opened under the bill are believed to have at least 1.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 5.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to heat 6 million homes for 15 years, according to the Interior Department.
Domenici says the offshore drilling measure is likely to be the only energy legislation that has a chance to emerge from Congress this year, despite a growing public clamor over high gasoline costs and grumbling from industry about high natural gas prices.
Talk of offshore oil and gas drilling has its own political pitfalls. Senators from many coastal states worry about potential oil spills that could harm beaches and jeopardize tourist industries.
Several senators are expected to push for a guarantee that the long-standing moratorium remain in place along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts until 2022. It is now approved by Congress annually.
To ease concerns of the Floridians, who continue to adamantly oppose oil and gas development in the eastern Gulf region, the Senate bill would bar drilling in a buffer ranging from 125 miles to as much as 230 miles from shore, and assure the drilling ban remains in place until 2022.
The bill would funnel tens of millions of additional dollars in royalties to four Gulf states — Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama — that already have drilling rigs off their coasts. These states would get 37.5 percent of future royalties from oil or gas taken from federally controlled waters, compared to less than 2 percent today.
That has raised concern among some senators as well as the Bush administration because of the expected drain on the U.S. Treasury.
By 2017, the four Gulf states' annual take would be $590 million and then grow to $1.2 billion by 2022, according to Sen. Jeff Bingaman (news, bio, voting record), D-N.M., who estimated that "over the next 60 years this entitlement to the Gulf Coast states would have a total value of at least $170 billion."
Sen. Mary Landrieu (news, bio, voting record), D-La., who helped broker the compromise bill, argues that the four states have long been shortchanged and that the new federal money would go to restore coastal wetlands and improve hurricane protection.
Energy companies, manufacturers and other industry groups have clamored for developing offshore energy, especially natural gas. The Business Roundtable recently urged lawmakers "to capitalize on this window of opportunity" when the need for more domestic energy has become apparent.
But environmentalists argue it will take six years to bring any of the new oil or gas to market and there already are vast supplies of untapped reserves in waters not subject to drilling restrictions.
"The oil and gas industry is sitting on 33 million acres of Outer Continental Shelf leases which it hasn't developed," said David Alberswerth of the Wilderness Society.
Alberswerth says the government's own estimates show there's four times more recoverable natural gas — 328 trillion cubic feet — in offshore areas where drilling is allowed, compared to waters under drilling bans.
Dear Enviromentalist wackos;
You do realize your handwring and hysterics means that while Cuba and Mexico drill within 60 miles of the US coastline your hysterics contibute to us having to pay $3.00 a gallon for gas? That your rabid refusal to let us develop our own energy resources makes that rats nest known as the Middle East a area of vital intrest to US National and Ecnomic security cpsting us blood and treasure year in and year out for decades? Get a grip and get the bleep out of the way.
This is a very much watered down version of the House bill. There's even doubt this watered down version will survive the Senate. That's how much power the green lobby has. Even in the face of high gas prices, war in the Middle East and our energy future in the hands of such benevolent folks as Chavez and Ahmadinejad they still refuse to consider a rational national energy policy.
Much as many Senators/Reps are running for cover over the Immigration Bill, I think its imperative to keep all of their feet to the fire; take note of who votes for what and who introduces what legislation; particularly that which will limit or prohibit exploration and drilling.
ENOUGH already. Who do these A*holes think they are. THEY work for us, not the other way around and it high time they learned where their place is. November is coming.
From an energy standpoint, this country is screwed. I'm already looking at houses in TN, SC, and AR. I can't afford to stay in Wisconsin with these high heating bills.
Come to the upstate of SC, we have the cheapest gas in the country and housing market is buyers market. We love it here - mts, beaches only 3 hours away, Atlanta and Charlotte only 2 hours away. great conservative place.
TN doesn't have an income tax. Sales tax is 9 1/4% though.
Just left NJ for San Antonio Texas. I was use to the 8.25% sales tax in NY and 6 in NJ. No income tax is pretty darn nice.
Thanks to Gov. Corzine, NJ is now up to 7%...
"Thanks to Gov. Corzine, NJ is now up to 7%..."
And thanks to Corzine I am now a resident of Texas. Jersey is a dump, beach or no beach.
In some places there is more pollution by not drilling and containing the oil because the oil is just seeping straight into the ocean, proving once again these groups don't care about the environment as much as they are anti-American and anti-Capitalist.
These people (the Eviro-whackos), along with bill clinton have achieved their objective.
They've backed us into a corner.
If they open up the Outer Continental shelf, we don't have the rigs.
In any case, increased Domestic production is years (5-10) away.
Thank that bastard bill clinton and his cronies.
One more reason to vote this year and in '08.
The Envies would love for gas to cost $30 let alone $3. Everybody goes back to Stanley Steemers burning wood.
Sounds like a good start...
Senate Republican leaders said there aren't the votes to push such a broad measure through the Senate.
Sounds likes they're not terribly good leaders. And it's well past time for some voter attention to the RINO miscreants.......
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