Offshore Oil Ban Holds Steady
congresswatch | Energy | Water
The League of Conservation Voters reported on May 19th that, despite talk of an energy crisis and the need for independence from foreign oil, Congress does not want to open more U.S. coastal waters to energy development.
On May 18, the House rejected an attempt to end the 25-year moratorium on oil and natural gas drilling that has affected over eighty percent of the country's coastal waters, despite some assertions that new supplies are needed to lower energy costs.
Most Republicans and Democrats from coastal states opposed lifting the drilling restrictions, an issue which dominated debate over the $25.9 billion Interior Department spending bill. The proposal to open coastal waters to energy drilling was introduced by Representative John Peterson (R-PA).
Many conservation organizations spoke out against Rep. Peterson’s plan, asserting that in would have threatened the Nation’s coasts, air and marine wildlife, and possibly farther-flung locales, including the Rocky Mountain Front and Arctic Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). During the bill’s debate, groups including Defenders of Wildlife and Sierra Club stressed that landlocked western states, which hold important energy resources, were to be concerned if the moratorium was lifted, as drilling bans, such as the one in Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, are precarious to political whims.
The offshore drilling moratorium was installed by the first George Bush to protect offshore ecosystems and later expanded by Bill Clinton. The ban prohibits drilling near most of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts as well as Florida, but only covers around 20 percent of U.S. offshore gas reserves.
For more information about this issue, please visit:
- Sierra Club: www.sierraclub.org
- Defenders of Wildlife: www.defenders.org
