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Panel Preserves Coast Drilling Ban

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By BILLY HOUSE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 12, 2008

WASHINGTON - A leading congressional proponent of opening up offshore oil drilling closer to Florida's Gulf Coast promised on Wednesday to continue his fight, after being dealt yet another defeat.

A Democratic-controlled House panel voted 9-6 in a party-line vote against lifting the 27-year-old offshore drilling moratorium, at a time when gasoline prices are expected to float at or above $4 a gallon for the rest of the summer.

As with Florida, the amendment by GOP Rep. John Peterson of Pennsylvania also would have opened up drilling in now-protected areas 50 to 200 miles off the East and West coasts, including off North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina.

The first 50 miles offshore would not be opened to drilling.

"There is no valid reason for Congress to continue keeping Americans from the energy resources they own and are in dire need of," Peterson said.

The U.S. Minerals and Management Service estimates there are 86 billion barrels of oil under the Outer Continental Shelf, the sloping undersea plain between the continent and the deep ocean. By some estimates, there could be 3.88 billion barrels of oil within 125 miles of Florida's Gulf coastline alone.

Even if that oil supply could not be developed and made available to consumers for several years - as some Florida-based environmentalists point out - Peterson argues that opening up more offshore drilling would send energy markets a message that "vast amounts of our own oil and natural gas supply are now in play."

He said that would help stabilize oil prices, dampening the rampant speculation on oil in world markets.

But opponents argued before the vote by members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Issues that much of the federal land already leased to oil and gas companies is not being aggressively developed.

New York Democratic Rep. Maurice Hinchey asked: "Why are they not producing? That is the real question here. ... We need to get the oil companies to start acting responsibly."

And House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, said he thinks Peterson's amendment sets up a "false dichotomy between protection of our beaches and our wild lands, and energy efficiency."

Obey said the real issue is that both parties in Washington have been negligent in developing alternative energy and energy conservation methods.

"We are kidding ourselves if we think we can drill our way out of these problems," said Obey, noting that no matter how U.S. oil sources are pursued, "we still have a tiny portion of the world supply."

The idea of unlocking the offshore oil and gas is not seen as having wide support in the Senate, and is opposed by the White House.

But Peterson, who is not seeking re-election this fall, signaled that he and fellow Republicans plan to keep raising the issue and making Democrats cast repeated votes on it - perhaps again as early as next week when the full House Appropriations Committee considers the same spending bill.

"Whether we appreciate it or not, the American people are going to have a lot to say about this," Peterson said.

Reporter Billy House can be reached at bhouse@tampatrib.com or (202) 662-7673.

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