House votes to end offshore oil drilling ban
Feeling the heat of Republican election-year attacks, the Democratic majority votes to allow states to decide whether to permit energy exploration 50 to 100 miles off their coasts.
WASHINGTON — In a stunning political turnabout, the House voted Tuesday to end a long-standing ban on new offshore oil drilling as part of an energy bill aimed at rebutting Republican election-year attacks that the Democratic majority wasn't doing enough to try to ease the public's pain at the pump.
The measure would let states decide whether to permit energy exploration 50 to 100 miles off their coasts, ending a drilling ban that was put in place for much of the California coastline in 1981 and expanded to much of the rest of the United States in 1985. It would allow drilling 100 miles or more offshore regardless of a state's wishes.
The bill drew a veto threat from the White House, which contended that it didn't go far enough to generate new domestic supplies of oil and natural gas and objected to a number of its other provisions, including the repeal of oil industry tax breaks that it said could discourage new exploration.
Its prospects are uncertain in the Senate, which may begin debating energy legislation as early as Wednesday. The 236-189 House vote was, until recently, unthinkable.
"Before us today is landmark legislation that would for the first time since 1982 sweep away moratoria precluding oil and gas leasing in much of the federal waters off America's coastlines," said Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.). The drilling ban was first approved in 1981 as part of the 1982 Interior Department spending bill.
But the unthinkable became viewed as political necessity in an election year when gas prices have become a hot issue. Democratic leaders saw the legislation as preferable to the alternative: the scheduled Sept. 30 expiration of a ban on new drilling as close as three miles to the coast.
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) said her preference was to retain the drilling ban, "but we don't have the votes to do that."
The bill includes a number of Democratic priorities, including repealing $18 billion in oil industry tax breaks and using the money to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. It would require utilities to generate 15% of their electricity by 2020 from cleaner sources, such as the sun and wind. And it would force oil companies to pay additional royalties for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
It also includes measures aimed at preventing future misconduct in the federal agency responsible for collecting oil and natural gas royalties, a response to recent revelations that Minerals Management Service employees accepted gifts and had sex with industry contacts.
