WASHINGTON -- Congress will let a decades-old ban on drilling off the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts expire at the end of this month, in an effort to kick the partisan fight over oil drilling beyond the November 4 election, reported The Wall Street Journal. House Democratic leaders passed a stopgap budget bill Wednesday that does not extend the offshore-drilling ban, bowing to Republicans who have scored election-year points with voters by calling for more drilling to counter rising oil prices. The Senate is expected to approve the bill without extending the drilling ban, said the report. [image-nocss] Democrats promised the ban will be restored after the presidential election.
The chairman of Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D- N.M.), said his party would reinstate the moratorium in the new Congress. "This battle is not over," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, one of the states that has fought the hardest against new exploration off their coasts. "We will come back and fight another day—that's for sure."
Republicans said they will fight to prevent reinstatement of the ban. "I don't think it's a hollow victory unless they take the victory away after the elections," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Republicans currently can block passage in the Senate of a bill that extends the moratorium. The election will determine whether Republicans can hold enough Senate seats to continue wielding that power.
Offshore drilling has become a potent issue in the presidential and congressional election contests, the report said, as polls have shown growing public support for the Republican position that the offshore-drilling ban should be lifted.
The Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service earlier this year began drafting a new five-year leasing plan to begin in 2010 that covered areas that are currently closed by the ban. The MMS estimates that the areas along the Outer Continental Shelf in the lower 48 states hold around 18 billion barrels of oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, about 2.5 years of U.S. oil demand and almost a decade of gas consumption. The estimate is based on decades-old data, and many say the numbers could be higher.
Democrats are not unified on the issue, as shown by the energy plan proffered by the "Group of 20"—10 senators from each party, the Journal said. They proposed new exploration off the coasts, including the eastern shore of Florida not covered by lifting of the ban, and offered sharing the royalties with the states as a sweetener. Other Democrats, such as Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.), have long made their positive stance on more drilling clear.
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