House OKs energy bill: Senate still eyeing own legislation; Bush vows veto

House OKs energy bill: Senate still eyeing own legislation; Bush vows veto

Sep 18 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jeremy Morrison The News Herald, Panama City, Fla.

The U.S. House of Representatives gave its approval late Tuesday to open up new oil and natural gas exploration along the Outer Continental Shelf in a bill that excluded much of the Gulf of Mexico off Florida's coast.

The bill passed 236-189, largely along party lines. The Senate is debating a slightly different version of the bill, and President Bush already has threatened a veto.

"This was purely a political stunt," Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Chumuckla, said Wednesday. "It gives (the Democrats) the ability to go out onto the stump and say they voted for drilling, but they have no intention of ever drilling."

The bill, dubbed The Comprehensive Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act (HR 6899), would allow for drilling 100 miles from both the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines and as close as 50 miles from shore if individual states so choose. Much of the gulf off Florida, however, would be off limits because of its use in military training exercises.

"This House energy bill recognizes the important role of our military testing range," Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, said in a statement.

Last week, Florida House Democrats convinced Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calf., to include a provision in the bill upholding a 2006 law that safeguards the state's military mission line. That move essentially took a large swath of the gulf, stretching from Pensacola to Key West, off the table until 2022.

The new House bill also nixes oil company tax breaks. Instead, it funnels money into the development of alternative energy sources.

"It is DOA in the Senate," Miller said of the bill. "It'll never pass."

Last week, Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez issued a statement ahead of the pending energy bill. The Democrats' proposal, he said, did not go nearly far enough.

"I am for more domestic exploration," Martinez said in the statement. "We need to drill for oil in ANWR (Alaska National Wildlife Refuge) and the OCS (Outer Continental Shelf). We need to start taking advantage of the vast supplies of oil shale in the West."

Martinez' counterpart, Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, spoke that same day on the House floor in support of the new bill.

"I want everybody to be clear where this Senator is," Nelson said. "Let me tell you, the speaker of the House of Representatives came out yesterday with a proposal that this senator would certainly consider, and I think favorably."

Although Pelosi and other Democrats were successful Tuesday in passing the new energy bill, it faces an uphill battle in the Senate and almost certain death at the hands of the Bush administration.

"It'll never go," Miller said.

If the bill does not receive a warm reception in the Senate and a compromise cannot be hammered out by Sept. 30, the federal moratorium on offshore drilling will expire. If the ban lapses, oil and gas exploration could be fair game as close as three miles from shore.