Renewal of drilling policy barred
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday against an attempt by Republicans to keep in place an edict of the former Bush administration to allow oil and gas drilling along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States.
The 56-42 vote killed a proposal by Republican Sen. David Vitter that would have blocked the Obama administration from pursuing its own policy on offshore drilling. Vitter represents Louisiana, which has major offshore drilling interests.
Last year, with gasoline prices soaring, Republicans sought political momentum by advocating new offshore drilling.
“Remember last summer where almost all of America said, ‘This is ridiculous, drill here, drill now. Let’s use our own resources and not be held captive to foreign interests,'” Vitter said. “Do you remember that?”
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar disappointed pro-drilling advocates last week when he said that he is in no hurry to decide whether to allow offshore drilling in federal waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
Salazar said he is uncertain whether the Interior Department will seek to put a new five-year drilling plan in place before the existing leasing program runs out in 2012.
While the Interior Department is considered unlikely to adopt the overall Bush-era proposal, which was released on its last working day in office, it remains unclear whether the Obama administration will allow any expansion of Outer Continental Shelf drilling.
The current plan is in place until 2012, so legally the department has until 2012 to redo a plan on the Outer Continental Shelf, Salazar said.