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In response to soaring fuel prices, the Democratic-controlled House last night passed an energy package that would allow offshore drilling for the first time in 26 years.

The measure, which passed by a 236-to-189 margin along party lines, would lift a ban on offshore drilling in place since 1982 and allow companies to drill for oil and gas 50 to 100 miles out to sea.

Conservationists have vehemently opposed drilling near U.S. coasts because of its potential to pollute the oceans and disrupt the ecosystem. But they have offered little criticism of the bill. "The lack of complaints from environmental groups about this sham Democratic bill is a telling sign," Michael Steel, an aide to House Minority Leader John Boehner, told Politico. "It’s the dog that didn’t bark."

In an attempt to ease opposition, Democrats included provisions such as tax credits for wind and solar companies as well as for development of biofuels and purchases of hybrid vehicles, according to an Associated Press blow-by-blow of the changes. The plan would also eliminate $18 billion in tax breaks for oil companies, the New York Times notes.

Advisors to President Bush say they will recommend that he veto the House bill if it makes it to his desk, insisting that it would hinder the development of offshore drilling, CNN is reporting.
 
Republicans have described the bill, sponsored by Rep. Nick Rahall (D-VA) as a gimmick, insisting that Democrats offered it to calm consumer anger over sky-high gas prices in an election year even though it's unlikely to pass without tax breaks and protections from environmental lawsuits for the oil industry.

The Senate may consider the measure next week, CNN reports.

(Image of oil rig from iStockphoto, Copyright: S. Greg Panosian)

4 Comments

1. 1. hotblack 02:11 AM 9/18/08

   Well, that's about right.
   
   OK, our country is a Federal Republic. The idea of a Republic is that the country's management is insulated from the vote of a potentially stupid public, in case of an insufficient educational system, (like sheep herders scattered all over greece. How do you educate these people? There was no means). Republics work on the premise that people aren't qualified to vote, so they vote for qualified people who will vote for them.
   
   So, when we have a public whose scientific literacy is enthusiastically diminishing, in theory, they should be protected from voting for stupid things, by voting for representatives who ARE smart enough to grasp what is net constructive and what is net destructive.
   
   Instead, we have a public whose scientific literacy is falling, voting for a group of representatives even less educated then themselves. Exactly what Pericles feared when he dreamed up the notion of people ruling themselves instead of worshipping kings, and also why the notion of periodic revolutions was favored by our own founding fathers.
   
   Our government needs a system-wide purge.
   
   Scientific Aptitude testing for people running for positions of power, or this country falls.

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2. 2. laurenra7 07:47 AM 9/18/08

   How stupid do they think Americans are? It's a do-nothing bill timed for an important election to dupe voters into believing they are allowing drilling. It doesn't really open up any new drilling because the areas opened won't be drilled. It's economically infeasible.
   
   Skip the election year make-nice and keep offshore drilling bans in place. Instead let's do something useful and develop an ethanol and natural gas infrastucture to power our transportation systems. If lowly Brazil can do it in a few years, so can we. This would free us from our dependency on foreign oil far more quickly than drilling new wells, building solar farms, wind farms, or nuclear power plants would. All those have their place and will help, but let's get serious about what will power our cars next: it's ethanol. It burns cleaner, with far less CO2 emissions, than petroleum. Best of all, it's renewable. But skip the fantasy of making it with corn. Brazil does it with sugar cane which is far more efficient. We could do it even more efficiently with switchgrass, cellulose waste and algae. How cool would it be to turn 70% of our solid waste into ethanol fuel?
   
   Within a decade we could drastically reduce our dependancy on foreign oil, and we wouldn't have to suffer any lifestyle sacrifices in the process, as Sen. Obama thinks we need to.
   

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3. 3. hotblack 10:36 AM 9/18/08

   Perfect! Finally a use for the US's vast sugar cane fields.

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4. 4. Steve Kolian 09:07 PM 9/23/08

   Offshore oil and gas platforms are one of the most prolific ecosytems, by area, on the planet. One platform is home to 30,000 fish and five million invertabrates. Many of the species inhabiting the structures are endangered, threaten or protected by the federal government. Go to www.ecorigs.org to view the marine life inhabiting the oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

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