House votes to lift offshore-drilling ban

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-63618sy0jun30,0,3475515.story?coll=dp-news-local-final

 

The move brings Virginia closer to an option to sell oil and gas leases.

 

WASHINGTON -- The House voted Thursday to open the nation's coasts to gas and oil drilling, overcoming vocal opposition from environmentalists who had blocked the effort for years.

 

By a margin of 232-187, the House approved a measure that would open most U.S. waters to drilling 100 miles from shore and give coastal states the option to drill closer to their beaches.

 

The bill, which now goes to the Senate, effectively would lift a federal ban that has for the past 25 years prevented drilling in virtually all coastal waters of the country except parts of the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Virginia's General Assembly had urged that the ban be lifted, saying the state could reap more than $3 billion in royalties over the next 20 years from drilling leases.

 

While prospects for passage in the Senate remain uncertain, supporters hailed the House vote Thursday night as a signal that the political tide against offshore drilling is beginning to turn.

 

"Never before have we accomplished so much for American jobs and energy security in a single, stand-alone bill," said Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chairman of the House Resources Committee and the prime mover of the drilling measure.

 

Critics decried the bill as a sop to the oil industry that would threaten the coastal environment and do little to produce energy independence.

 

"Americans already believe that their Congress lacks the guts to stand up to Big Oil," said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. "Today's vote proves they are absolutely right."

 

But many lawmakers - mostly Republican - said they were determined to act this year to lessen American dependence on foreign energy at a time of soaring oil and natural gas prices. Advances in technology, they insisted, have greatly reduced the environmental risk that drilling can pose.

 

"In America, we pay the highest price in the world" for natural gas, said Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., a leading sponsor of the bill. "Why? Because we lock it up. This is about homeowners being able to heat their homes. This is about America competing."

 

Under the bill, drilling would be allowed along the entire Outer Continental Shelf of the nation 100 miles from shore.

 

Most Virginia members of the House supported the bill, but the Hampton Roads delegation was evenly divided.

 

Rep. Thelma Drake, R-Norfolk, and Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake, voted for the bill.

 

"Right now, Hampton Roads consumers and businesses are overpaying for natural gas because for too long we have failed to develop the domestic supplies that exist off our coasts," said Drake, a member of the Resources Committee and a vocal drilling advocate. "This legislation restores the ability of Americans to compete in the ever-growing global marketplace."

 

But Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Gloucester, and Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-Newport News, voted against the bill, though for different reasons.

 

Scott said he was troubled that offshore drilling posed a needless threat to Virginia waters.

 

"We shouldn't bet the Chesapeake Bay," he said. "It's unlikely the Chesapeake Bay would be ruined, but why take the chance?"

 

Davis, who broke with most Republicans to oppose the bill after weeks of indecision, said a focus on oil and gas drilling would slow the development of alternative fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol. She also objected to requiring states to opt out of drilling, instead of limiting drilling only to those states that pass legislation requesting it.

 

"It was hard," Davis said of her decision, which came in the final moments of the roll-call vote. "My head was telling me it's a good bill. My gut was telling me it's just not right."

 

Despite the success in the House, the bill could still be derailed in the Senate. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat facing re-election this fall, is threatening to filibuster the measure.

 

The Bush administration, meanwhile, has offered only tepid support.