June 24, 2009
Key Senate Democrats are trying to relieve restrictions to offshore drilling near Florida's coast. But some Republicans are saying the effort is too weak and will not do much to improve the nation's oil and gas future.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed legislation that would make it easier to lease parts of Florida's coastline to oil and gas producers. The measure, which will likely be part of a broader bill dealing with energy efficiency and renewable fuels, would cut in half the current buffer zone.
That would greatly increase the amount of oil and gas that is available to production, say Democratic leaders on the committee -- and still mean that such drilling would not be within sight of the human eye. The seemingly moderate position, however, is getting hit from all sides.
"If the Exxon Valdez spill had happened on the East Coast, it would have extended from Massachusetts to North Carolina," says Wesley Warren, program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Twenty years later, a threat like this is all too real if there is a green light for new offshore drilling."
It's a position supported by Florida's congressional delegation, which says the drilling would hurt its tourism industry. Florida's U.S. senators say they will use delay tactics to prevent a vote on any modification of the current law. Republicans, meanwhile, want to work with those coastal states to enact policies that would allow drilling in areas that are at least 100 miles offshore.
Before the country went into a financial tailspin last fall, it had focused on whether to increase offshore drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico as well as along the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines. With gasoline prices at $4 a gallon, Americans were crying for relief. In the heat of it all, candidate Barack Obama backed off his stiff opposition and said that the country must consider a comprehensive offshore energy policy.
As president, he ordered his Department of the Interior to collate oil and gas drilling policies along with those tied to offshore wind strategies. While the department is still studying the issue, it has estimated that if the size of Florida's buffer were reduced to 45 miles then it would mean an extra 3.88 billion barrels of oil and 21.51 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
"By allowing greater access to oil and natural gas leasing in promising areas of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, (the) amendment stands to help the American people by creating new jobs, adding new energy resources and providing new revenues to federal, state and local governments," says American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard.
Lobbying Efforts
While the environmental movement says that the offshore amendment authored by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., would lead to more tolerant drilling policies elsewhere in the country, other more conservative senators say that his Florida coastline provision is too weak. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, says that substantially more oil and gas deposits rest closer to the shorelines. To motivate the states to consent to more drilling, she says they should be able to participate in revenue sharing from those finds.
Current law says that the states control oil and gas drilling within three miles of their borders. Beyond that, the U.S. Minerals Management Service regulates drilling -- a law that has been in place since the mid-1980s. It has the right to grant leases to the highest qualified responsible bidder.
Currently, about 35 percent of the natural gas consumed in the United States each year is produced offshore. But proponents of greater drilling rights say that about 85 percent of all offshore areas are off-limits to production. If more supplies came to market, oil and gas prices would fall, they add.
Despite the lobbying efforts, challengers abound. The central test for those supporting increased offshore drilling is persuading environmental activists that offshore drilling would leave unnoticeable footprints.
Opponents of allowing greater drilling rights off America's coastlines note that 191,000 barrels of oil have already found their way into the Gulf of Mexico by way of damaged pipelines and hurricane-torn oil facilities. They also point out that the U.S. Minerals Management Service says that drilling is already permitted where 80 percent of all economically recoverable natural gas is located in the Outer Continental Shelf.
On its last business day in office, the Bush Administration proposed a new five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing. But the Obama administration said that it plans to extend the comment period an additional six months, giving the president time to formulate a detailed policy and to do so in conjunction with Congress.
"In the biggest area that the Bush Administration's ... proposes for oil and gas drilling -- the Atlantic seaboard, from Maine to Florida -- our data on available resources is very thin, and what little we have is 20 to 30 years old," says Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. "We shouldn't make decisions to sell off taxpayer resources based on old information."
The U.S. Interior Department had previously estimated that if all areas now closed to drilling were accessed, 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are technically recoverable. That would add another 22 years of domestic supplies.
Volatile oil and gas prices translate into more American acceptance of new drilling policies. But if more production rights are granted, it will be in moderation and along the lines of what the U.S. Senate is discussing. Oil and gas discoveries are important. But, so too, is the pristine nature of America's shorelines.
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