Oil Spill Pressures White House On Climate Legislation

Reuters, by Patricia Zengerle, April 30, 2010

http://planetark.org/wen/57792

and

Associated Press, by Matthew Daly & Noaki Schwartz, May 1, 2010

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100502/ap_on_bi_ge/us_oil_spill_climate_bill

The spreading oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico could force the White House to rethink plans to increase offshore oil drilling, an essential component of a climate change bill it is working to push through Congress. The spill fueled the anger of environmentalists who had criticized his administration's plan unveiled on March 31 to expand drilling after a decades-long moratorium on oil exploration in most of areas of the U.S. coast outside the Gulf of Mexico. Their reaction could add to pressure on many of Obama's fellow Democrats not to support the bill. Similarly, some Democrats, including two of New Jersey's congressmen and both of its senators, have threatened to pull their support from climate legislation if offshore drilling is included.