July 23, 2010

Gulf Coast lawmakers press to lift offshore drilling ban

By Deborah Barfield Berry  |  The Town Talk  |  Link to article

WASHINGTON — Democratic and Republican lawmakers from the Gulf Coast are working together to lobby the administration to speed up permits for offshore drilling in shallow water and to lift the moratorium on drilling in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico.

“This ban hurts everybody,” Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., said on the House floor Thursday. “We stand united on the Gulf Coast to support good-paying jobs.”

Boustany and other Gulf Coast lawmakers say the administration’s policies could cost the region’s already fragile economy thousands of jobs.

“The moratorium could probably be worse than oil spill damages,” Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., said. “They know this moratorium is not going to be the best for the region. Safety is their concern.”

Melancon said he’s raised those issues with the White House and the Interior Department. He doesn’t expect the administration to change its position, so “we’re trying to figure out ways to attack the problem.”

Environmentalists applaud the drilling ban in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

“We support putting those regulations in place before risking another oil spill,” said Marilyn Heiman, director of the offshore energy reform project at the Pew Environment Group.

President Barack Obama imposed a six-month ban on deep-water drilling in the Gulf after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank off Louisiana’s coast on April 20, leaving its damaged underwater well gushing oil. Federal officials suspended new permits and continued to ban 33 deep-water Gulf wells from operating while the explosion is investigated and a commission reviews safety standards.

Last month, a federal court struck down the ban, calling it “arbitrary and capricious.“ The administration recently revised the moratorium, keeping it in place until Nov. 30.

The moratorium targets drilling in deep water, but Gulf Coast lawmakers say it created a “de facto moratorium” on drilling in shallow water. Federal records show only four permits have been granted since the Department of Interior issued the first moratorium in May. In the 11 months before the moratorium, an average of 14 shallow-water permits a month were granted, the records show.

A bipartisan group of 10 lawmakers from Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and Alaska took aim at the policies, introducing a resolution Thursday urging the administration to speed up permits for drilling in water 500 feet or less. They say 25,000 jobs are at risk.

The group also asked Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to clarify rules for shallow-water drilling.

“There’s no good reason to continue delaying permits for the companies that comply with those requirements,” said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., “The administration needs to act quickly and quit playing politics with the livelihoods of thousands of Gulf Coast residents.”

Earlier this month, Vitter and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., introduced a bill to lift the ban. Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced a similar measure, which is supported by the Louisiana delegation.

“After losing fisheries and coastal tourism to the spill, Louisiana’s economy cannot afford to lose energy jobs to politics,” said Cassidy, a member of the Natural Resources Committee.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., chairwoman of the Senate small business committee, will hold a hearing Tuesday on the impact of the moratorium on small businesses.

“Idling the Gulf’s shallow-water rig fleet indefinitely would be another blow to a region that has already suffered enough during this unprecedented disaster,” she said.

More than 11,000 people showed up for a rally in Lafayette Wednesday to protest the ban. Offshore drilling is a major employer in the Gulf.

Boustany said the ban is “is galvanizing” people.

“The long-term impacts are real,” he said, adding that it could drive some companies overseas. “Once a rig is gone it could be years before it returns, if it returns at all.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the ban will give officials time to investigate what happened to the Deepwater Horizon, which she said confirms “the inherent catastrophic dangers of deep-water drilling.”

But Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., said the administration’s policies have made the country more dependent on foreign oil, “wrecking our economy” and “kicking people when they’re down.”