WASHINGTON – The Senate voted Tuesday to open 8.3 million acres of federal waters in the central Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling, setting up a confrontation with the House, which wants even more drilling in waters now off-limits.
Supporters said the measure would be a major step toward producing more domestic energy and forcing down natural-gas prices that have soared in recent years.
The Senate approved the measure by a vote of 71-25; Washington state Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell voted “no” with the minority.
The bill now must be reconciled with much broader drilling legislation passed by the House in June. Those negotiations are likely to begin in September.
“This bill will substantially reduce our reliance on foreign oil and gas. … It brings more American energy to American consumers,” said Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Some critics of the legislation noted that it will be years before any oil or gas will be taken from the 8.3 million acres and that the legislation falls short of addressing many of the country’s energy problems. Environmentalists argue that drilling in areas now off-limits would threaten coastal beaches and marine life if a spill should occur.
Despite the solid Senate vote, the bill’s prospect of clearing Congress remains uncertain.
The House-passed bill would allow energy companies access to waters far beyond the central Gulf and lift the quarter-century-old drilling moratorium on Outer Continental Shelf waters on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, while allowing states to decide whether to continue the drilling bans.
Senate Democrats and GOP moderates say such a broad bill would threaten areas that have long opposed offshore drilling, such as the Pacific Northwest. Senate leaders say it would spark a filibuster and probably lead to no offshore drilling legislation emerging from Congress this year.
The 8.3 million acres affected by the Senate measure is believed to contain 1.2 billion barrels of oil and nearly 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to heat 6 million homes for 15 years.
The bill would create a “zone of protection” for Florida that would stretch 125 to 300 miles from the state’s beaches at various points. It also would funnel tens of millions of additional dollars to the four other Gulf coast states as their share of future oil and gas revenues.
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