Republicans Eye Expanding US Offshore Drilling

[nosmokes]

original
ANALYSIS -

Republicans Eye Expanding US Offshore Drilling

WASHINGTON - Barely a month after President Bush signed a $14.5 billion energy bill into law, Hurricane Katrina's destructive dance through the US oil patch is being seized on by Republicans as a reason to open more federal offshore waters to drilling.

The House and Senate energy committees are also looking at measures to help the energy industry, such as incentives to build the first US refinery since 1976 and cutting the array of fuel blends required by anti-pollution rules.

Before Katrina shut most of the Gulf of Mexico's oil and gas production and 10 percent of US refining capacity, Republicans were gunning for a budgetary step to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to exploration.

Now they have widened their scope to include drilling in banned Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) waters off Florida and other states. Currently, federal offshore drilling is allowed only in Alaska, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas.

ANWR and offshore drilling may be included in an omnibus federal budget bill that lawmakers want to take up after they work on hurricane disaster aid. Such a bill cannot be filibustered, or talked to death under Senate rules and can be passed with a simple majority vote.

Florida and some other states oppose offshore drilling, fearing it could hurt their tourism industries.

Environmental activists see crass opportunism.
~snip~
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complete article @ link

[aquart]

1. Republicans steal with both hands.

Republicans kill dogs.

[Hekate]

2. >sigh< Gird your loins again, Central Coast

Santa Barbara County's long-standing battle with Big Oil never really goes away. But hey, all they really want are shoulder to shoulder oil platforms just off our beaches -- that and to continue soaking us with almost the highest gasoline prices in the country.

Hekate

#Why won't the Chickenhawk cross the road?#
#Why isn't the Chickenhawk waitin' on the levee?#

[Judi Lynn]

3. Republicans Eye Expanding U.S. Offshore Drilling

Republicans Eye Expanding U.S. Offshore Drilling

September 09, 2005 — By Chris Baltimore, Reuters
WASHINGTON — Barely a month after President Bush signed a $14.5 billion energy bill into law, Hurricane Katrina's destructive dance through the U.S. oilpatch is being seized on by Republicans as a reason to open more federal offshore waters to drilling.
The House and Senate energy committees are also looking at measures to help the energy industry, such as incentives to build the first U.S. refinery since 1976 and cutting the array of fuel blends required by anti-pollution rules.

Before Katrina shut most of the Gulf of Mexico's oil and gas production and 10 percent of U.S. refining capacity, Republicans were gunning for a budgetary step to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to exploration.

Now they have widened their scope to include drilling in banned Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) waters off Florida and other states. Currently, federal offshore drilling is allowed only in Alaska, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas.

ANWR and offshore drilling may be included in an omnibus federal budget bill that lawmakers want to take up after they work on hurricane disaster aid. Such a bill cannot be filibustered, or talked to death under Senate rules and can be passed with a simple majority vote.
(snip/...)

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=8747

[Judi Lynn]

4. Senators say Katrina no reason to drill off Florida shores

Posted on Thu, Sep. 08, 2005

Senators say Katrina no reason to drill off Florida shores
Associated Press

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Florida's U.S. senators are worried Hurricane Katrina is being used as a wedge to open waters off the state's shores to oil and natural gas drilling.

The issue of lifting moratoriums on drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico came up Thursday at a hearing on rising energy prices by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
(snip)

Dan McLaughlin, a spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the pressure to drill from the petroleum industry and its supporters in Congress was expected and part of a long-standing goal.

"They're now seizing on Hurricane Katrina as political cover," McLaughlin said.
(snip/...)

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/breaking_news/12594223.htm

[cornermouse]

5. NPR had an interview about that a few weeks back.

[krkaufman]

6. So, let's see, summarizing.... 9/11 gave us The Patriot Act...

... and the diminution of our civil rights.

And now Katrina will bless us, through the benevolence of our Republican Fathers, with wage cuts, the gutting of environmental laws, and the sterilization of New Orleans.

Joy...

[hogwyld]

7. Hurt tourism?

What can be more beautiful than a sunset over the string of hulking oil platforms dotting the horizon?