House GOP Drops Plans
To Try To End Offshore Drilling Bans
October 04, 2005 — By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — House Republicans have
abandoned plans to lift the ban on offshore drilling along most of the
country's coastline as part of new energy legislation, GOP congressmen
said Monday.
Lawmakers from Florida and other coastal states objected to the proposal
endorsed by the House Resources Committee. The House is expected to
consider next week legislation aimed at expanding U.S. refinery
capacity, including several provisions that critics say would ease clean
air requirements on refineries and power plants.
Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., the Resources Committee's chairman, said
the offshore drilling provision, which he opposed, would be dropped from
consideration as part of the energy legislation. Pombo prefers a less
sweeping approach that would allow a waiver of the drilling ban to
individual states if they request it.
Both proposals have been sharply criticized by environmentalists as well
as lawmakers from some coastal states, especially Florida. They argue
that the offshore areas outside the central and western Gulf of Mexico
should remain off limits to natural gas or oil drilling for
environmental and tourism reasons.
Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., who has argued that the country needs all the
natural gas it can get and sponsored the proposal accepted by the
Resources Committee, said he also had been told the provision would not
be included in the energy legislation when it goes to the House floor.
Peterson said he will try to get the provision considered as an
amendment. "I don't know if I can," he said.
Pombo said that while the country's offshore energy resources should be
developed, "the states should have ultimate authority over resource
production, including the power to prevent it, in the deep waters off
their coasts."
He plans to pursue, separately from the upcoming energy bill, a proposal
to allow for a waiver of the drilling ban if a state wants to develop
oil or natural gas resources off its coast. Royalties from such leases
would be shared equally between the federal government and state under
Pombo's proposal.
Pombo and GOP leaders also have decided to avoid a fight over another
contentious issue -- drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in
Alaska -- in the upcoming energy legislation. The House repeatedly has
approved opening ANWR, as the refuge is called, to oil companies, but
each time the matter died in the Senate because of a threat of a
filibuster.
Pombo plans to pursue the Alaska refuge drilling issue -- and perhaps
his offshore drilling proposal -- as part of the budget process, said
Jennifer Zuccarelli, spokeswoman for the Resources Committee.
Peterson won bipartisan approval for his proposal to end the bans on
offshore drilling for natural gas in the Resources Committee. But it was
quickly viewed as a "poison pill" by GOP leaders that could jeopardize
the energy legislation.
"I can understand why Floridians would want the power to control their
waters themselves," Pombo said. He said his proposal would codify the
bans in law, providing additional protection to states who want no
drilling.
Environmentalists have complained that House Republicans are using the
aftermath of the Katrina and Rita hurricanes, and the disruptions the
storms caused to the Gulf coast oil and natural gas supplies, as an
excuse to ending anti-drilling safeguards that have been put in place by
presidents and Congress since 1981.
The drilling bans apply to virtually all waters of the Outer Continental
Shelf outside of the central and western Gulf of Mexico.
Twenty-two House members and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush sent a letter to
Pombo objecting to Peterson's proposal. Florida's two senators also
promised a filibuster of the energy bill if the provision were included.
Source: Associated Press |