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Politics

Offshore drilling plan is coming back to life

House Republicans are embracing a plan that could allow drilling 100 miles offshore, or even closer if a state agrees.

By WES ALLISON
Published June 17, 2006

House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., hopes his committee will pass a bill next week that would allow coastal states, rather than the federal government, to decide whether to allow drilling within 100 or 125 miles of their coasts, lawmakers said Friday.

The full House would then vote on the bill the following week, when House Republican leaders have scheduled an "energy week'' to consider legislation on developing alternative fuels and increasing domestic energy production.

''We're losing support every time the price of gas goes up,'' said Rep. C.W. Bill Young, a Republican from Indian Shores. ''I think it's important to get a permanent solution.''

With gas prices near $3 per gallon and Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke warning about the wallop of high energy costs on the U.S. economy, House leaders are eager to show voters they are responding. Pressure to drill in the eastern Gulf of Mexico has increased by the week since energy prices spiked last fall.

''The sooner we can get this issue resolved, the sooner we will not have to continue to fight our colleagues from Pennsylvania and Texas and Louisiana,'' said Rep. Jeff Miller, a Panhandle Republican who has been involved in recent negotiations. "It sounds very close to what we had.''

Several Florida Republicans have said they regretted not taking the deal Pombo offered in November, especially after having so much trouble last month defeating a measure that would have lifted a longstanding congressional moratorium on drilling just a few miles offshore.

''It looks like one heck of a deal right now,'' said Rep. Tom Feeney, an Orlando-area Republican. ''We blew it, and maybe we can get another shot at it.''

Pombo has been meeting with Republicans from Florida and other coastal states, and he met Friday with Rep. Adam Putnam of Bartow, the state's highest-ranking member. Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, chairman of the Florida delegation, hosted several colleagues to discuss the deal Friday morning.

Reps. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, and Mike Bilirakis, R-Tarpon Springs, who helped lead negotiations with Pombo last fall, have drafted a bill of their own, but they decided this week to hold it because ''we think there's going to be ... a compromise that most of the Florida Republicans can accept,'' Stearns said.

The details are still in flux and the Resources Committee could amend any bill that Pombo proposes. But essentially, the deal being discussed would affect most of the U.S. coast, including all of Florida's coastline, and is expected to include the same basic tenets as last year's deal.

Oil and gas exploration would be banned for 100 or 125 miles offshore, unless state legislatures choose to allow such exploration closer.

States that do would get a share of the payments that energy companies make to the federal government for drilling rights. This is seen as a key incentive for boosting offshore energy production.

There are a couple of key sticking points: Pro-drilling lawmakers want to require state legislatures to opt out of drilling closer to shore; the Floridians and their allies say they want to require states to actively opt-in.

Meanwhile, Stearns, Putnam and Miller said they want to ensure drilling would not interfere with the Navy and Air Force training range in the eastern gulf, which extends 234 miles off Tampa Bay.

Even excluding the military training zone, the proposed deal would open a large swath of Lease-Sale Area 181, a natural gas-rich area of the eastern gulf long sought by energy companies.

''It's a big puzzle,'' said Shaw, who last year helped to block the compromise. ''There's so many moving parts, we're just working to fit them all together.''

A possible vehicle is a bill sponsored by Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-La., which includes a 125-mile buffer and would vastly increase the states' share of federal drilling royalties. At a Resources Committee hearing on the Jindal bill Wednesday, Colleen Castille, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said Gov. Jeb Bush wants at least a 100-mile buffer and would not object to Jindal's proposal.

The head of the U.S. Mineral Management Service said the Bush administration also supports giving states the power to decide to allow drilling closer to shore.

Last year's deal, which was part of a massive budget bill, was withdrawn after Florida Democrats and several key Republicans refused to back it, jeopardizing the entire budget bill.

In a recent interview, Pombo said he believes a stand-alone measure would have a better chance of passing, because the budget bill drew opposition from lawmakers concerned about matters other than offshore drilling.

Politicians in Florida and other coastal states have long worried that drilling could lead to pollution of their beaches. Currently, the nation's entire outer continental shelf is off-limits to oil and gas exploration, except for off Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and small portions off California and Alaska.

The issue has gained urgency in recent days as Floridians begin to worry that Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., could win an ''energy week'' vote on an amendment to allow natural gas drilling as close as 20 miles to shore.

''I doubt that we could beat that one,'' Shaw said.

If they reach a deal with Pombo, however, the Floridians say they believe the House leadership will block Peterson from offering his amendment.

Negotiations among Pombo, Putnam, Peterson, Jindal, and others were expected to continue through the weekend. Pombo would like his committee to address a compromise on Wednesday, aides said.

Any deal approved by the House would have to go to the Senate, where its prospects are unclear. Both Florida's senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez, opposed the deal last year and have offered their own proposal.

Meanwhile, the talks come at a time of unusual disunity among the Florida delegation.

After intense bipartisan cooperation to defeat repeal of the congressional drilling moratorium last month, Democrats have accused their Republican colleagues of cutting them out of the most recent negotiations.

Last week, Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, who is running for governor, sent Shaw a letter complaining that only Republicans were involved in talks with Pombo. Of the 25 Florida House members, 18 are Republicans.

"It should not be the product of a back-room deal,'' Davis said Friday. "There ought to be hearings in Florida about the merits of any proposal.''

It was clear Friday that feelings were still raw, and Pombo indeed has been talking mainly with Republicans. That may erode Democratic support for a deal.

[Last modified June 17, 2006, 05:31:49]