Good article looking at the issues, in brief.
POTOMAC CHRONICLE
JONATHAN WALTERS
Troubled Waters
Offshore oil drilling sounds like a bonanza to some state interests — and a nightmare to others.
To drill or not to drill? Federal, state and local officials are battling it out over that question right now, as the whole issue of offshore oil exploration has made a strong comeback in Congress — and in at least one state legislature. If certain issues make for strange bedfellows, this one has interests that usually line up as allies kicking the sheets off each other. For now at least, the cross-pressures seem too intense for legislation at any level to become law.
For the past 25 years, there has been a moratorium on drilling within 100 miles of U.S. coastlines (with certain exceptions in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska). The moratorium was a response to environmental concerns related both to potential spills and to the environmental impact of the drilling itself. For states whose economies are particularly dependent on fishing and tourism, such as California and the Carolinas, the ban is a matter of faith.
But inspired by rising gas and oil prices, increased volatility in the Middle East, less-than-friendly relations with such suppliers as Venezuela and a demand for fuel that shows no sign of abating, the U.S. House voted in June to end the moratorium, marking a shift in congressional sentiment that was due in no small part to some key concessions to state interests.
Under the House bill, states could decide individually whether or not to continue the moratorium, and also how far into the water it might extend. The bill is generous to states when it comes to leases and royalties, shifting to state treasuries considerable revenue that under current policy goes to the federal government.
But as with most things congressional, the Senate had a different idea. In August, it passed its own version of the moratorium repeal, a more limited version that would open to drilling millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico but also create a “zone of protection” ranging from 125 to 300 miles off the Florida coast.
