drill drill drill

[Guest guest]

House Committee Signals Support for Ending Offshore Gas Drilling Ban

 

May 11, 2006 — By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A House panel voiced approval Wednesday for developing natural

gas in restricted areas of coastal waters, voting to remove from an Interior

Department bill a long-standing moratorium on drilling on most of the country's

Outer Continental Shelf.

 

It was a victory for Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., who has campaigned to open

offshore waters to natural gas development. But the action does not affect a

presidential moratorium, in effect until 2012, that bars offshore oil and gas

drilling in virtually all coastal waters outside the central and western Gulf of

Mexico.

 

" I hope the White House gets the message, " said Peterson. He said he expects

" another big fight " over the moratorium issue when the spending bill gets to the

floor. The Senate also has in the past rejected lifting the moratorium.

 

Peterson contended the country needs the offshore gas reserves to ease the tight

supplies that have seen the cost of the fuel quadruple in recent years. " We have

major industries who will not remain in America if we don't make natural gas

affordable, " he said.

 

Opponents of lifting the moratorium said if the offshore gas is made available,

industry also will want to go after oil in areas now protected against drilling.

Such development would harm states' tourist and recreational economies and

" carry substantial environmental risks, " said Rep. Norman Dicks, D-Wash.

 

The Appropriations Committee voted 37-25 to accept Peterson's amendment removing

the moratorium language.

 

There has been growing interest in lifting the drilling bans, especially for

natural gas, outside the central and western Gulf to ease tight natural gas

supplies.

 

The Interior Department recently said that in its next five-year development

plan it will offer leases in an area now off limits in the eastern Gulf of

Mexico, but those leases for a region known as Area 181, are not under either

the congressional or presidential moratoria.

 

Over the years, Congress repeatedly has included in its Interior appropriations

bills language putting most U.S. coastal waters off limits to oil and gas

companies. Presidential directives by President George H.W. Bush, President

Clinton and the current President Bush have reinforced the bans.

 

Congressional delegations from Florida and a number of other coastal states have

vowed to fight for continuation of the moratoria, arguing that oil and gas

development could threaten their recreational and tourist industries because of

a possible spill and the need for coastal support facilities.

 

Source: Associated Press

 

 

The crowded future stings my eyes

I still find time to exercise

In uniform with two white stripes

 

Unlock my section of the sand

It's fenced off to the water's edge

I clamp a gasmask on my head

 

[Chorus]

On my beach at night

Bathe in my moonlight

 

Another tanker's hit the rocks

Abandoned to spill out its guts

The sand is laced with sticky glops

 

O' Shimmering moonlight sheen upon

The waves and water clogged with oil

While gases steam up from the soil

 

[Chorus]

 

I squash dead fish between my toes

Try not to step on any bones

I turn around and I go home

 

I slip back through my basement door

Switch off all that I own below

Dive in my scalding wooden tub

 

My own beach at night

Electric Moonlight

 

There will always be a moon

Over Marin