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April 24, 2002
PENSACOLA -- A proposal by Sen. Bob Graham that would allow petroleum companies to swap drilling leases off a portion of Florida's gulf shore for sites elsewhere suffered a setback Tuesday.
The Florida Democrat was unable to get a commitment from Senate leaders to consider the plan, which would affect leases in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, as an amendment to a wide-ranging energy bill expected to come up for a vote Thursday.
An area where drilling is most likely also has been excluded from the voluntary swap amendment because of a pending lawsuit.
The amendment is an alternative to legislation Graham and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., had sought that would have required the federal government to buy back leases in the eastern gulf.
"The money just isn't there at this point," said Graham spokesman Paul Anderson.
The Senate voted 86-13 Tuesday to end debate on the energy bill. Graham voted against the motion because the leadership had agreed to consider only 14 amendments and his was not among them.
Graham was looking for other ways to get it into the bill, possibly by attaching it to another amendment, Anderson said.
Leases with active drilling permit applications are exempt from the amendment in an area known as the Destin Dome that extends as near to shore as 25 miles south of Pensacola.
Chevron USA and two partners, Conoco and Murphy Oil, want to drill up to 21 natural gas wells there. They would be the first production wells of any kind off Florida's shores.
The state has used its authority under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act to reject the drilling permits. The companies have taken their case to court and have an appeal pending before Commerce Secretary Don Evans, who can overrule the state.
The amendment would give drillers the option of trading existing leases in the eastern gulf at any time for credits that could be used no sooner than 2012 to buy leases elsewhere.
"It provides a win-win-win situation for the current leaseholders, for the environment and the economy," Graham said on the Senate floor Monday.
The energy bill is expected to be approved. Afterward, it would have to be merged with energy legislation already approved by the House.
Senators agreed unanimously to add a $14-billion energy tax provision, which includes tax breaks for insulating homes and buying fuel-efficient hybrid electric-gas vehicles and benefits to help a wide range of energy producers.
Motorists would receive a $1,000 tax credit for buying hybrid gas-electric cars and homeowners $2,000 to install solar panels for heating water or other purposes. A $250 to $300 tax credit would be established to help homeowners install fuel-saving insulation, windows and doors, more efficient air conditioners or heat pumps.
WEST PALM BEACH -- The White House plans no expansion of oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida, despite Mideast unrest and the U.S. Senate's refusal to allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Tuesday.
"We have committed that we will not be leasing in the area offshore of Florida," Norton told reporters after speaking to more than 400 people at a breakfast sponsored by the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches. She said the Bush administration will sell no petroleum leases in the eastern gulf outside a 1.47-million-acre area, 100 miles southwest of the Florida-Alabama border.
Norton made a similar pledge in July, saying the administration would consider no new leases in the eastern gulf for five years.