Posted on 02/17/2006 12:07:32 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AP) - California Democratic lawmakers are pushing new bills to install a permanent ban against drilling for oil or gas off the state's coast.
The legislation introduced in the Senate by Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and in the House by nearly all of the state's 33 House Democrats comes as other lawmakers are renewing efforts to open coastal areas to energy development.
Legislation by the Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Energy Committee would require the Interior Department to begin selling leases for oil and gas development in an area of the central Gulf of Mexico within a year.
House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., and others back legislation giving states the choice of whether to opt out of the existing drilling ban, and giving them a big chunk of royalties if they allow drilling in federal waters off their coasts.
A congressional moratorium renewed each year bans drilling in offshore federal waters, as does a presidential ban that's set to expire in 2012. California also bans drilling in state waters off its coast - those that extend three miles offshore.
But California Democrats are worried because the federal ban is not permanent. Their legislation would apply just to California and would permanently ban drilling in federal waters off the coast.
The bill also would prevent an inventory of Outer Continental Shelf energy resources that was authorized by an energy bill passed last year.
"While we have all been well served by the bans on new coastal oil drilling for the last 25 years, these important protections are increasingly threatened," said Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara. "Enacting legislation that provides permanent protection for California is essential."
And they'll be the first ones to bitch when gas prices go up again.
And, should I say... Bush' fault ?
The only drilling I'm for is in my Senators heads to relive the pressure on the walnuts they call brains.
Corrected Headline:
"California Democrats seek to make high oil prices permanent"
Do they REALLY have any authority beyond the 3-mile limit?
Permanent? as in beyond the next ice age?
If you Californians have a scintilla of common sense among you you will vote these b@st@rds out.
Blame Greenpeace.
Self-Righteous Bastards!
Why not blame the British Royal Family who funds them as major stockholders in BP?
the British Royal Family funds Greenpeace ?
...In addition, California Democrats propose shutting down all hydroelectric generation in the state.
And in a related move, California lawmakers propose making the exhalation of carbon dioxide a criminal offense.
Why doesn't President Bush open these areas, including Alaska and the Gulf for drilling, by Executive Order, just like his predecessor closed some?
Love the idea. But I think President Bush plays by the rules and believes strongly in representative democracy; unlike the prior president.
Enviro groups are hit men for those who would use them to control access to resources and create artificial scarcity. Consider this post for a description of how it worked in the California power crisis.
For the same reason he doesn't cancel Carter's EO banning nuclear fuel reprocessing: the people to whom we owe money wouldn't like that.
I like your answer best.
But the process for shutting off drilling has nothing to do with legislatures, it has to do with unaccountable bureaucracies. If it is legal, do it, that is my motto.
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