Senators seek Pentagon help on gulf drilling, urge conservation

[Judi Lynn]

Senators seek Pentagon help on gulf drilling, urge conservation

The Associated Press

October 06, 2005

Top leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee are trying to get the Pentagon involved in Florida's battle to prevent offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, where the military trains and tests weapons, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Thursday.

Meanwhile, Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., took the state's case to another Senate committee in Washington, D.C., urging conservation instead of more drilling in response to rising oil and natural gas prices, and declining supplies.

In Tallahassee, Gov. Jeb Bush again defended efforts to reach a compromise that he believes would give Florida stronger long-term protection against drilling, though it could open some now-closed areas that are at least 125 miles off the coast. Nelson, D-Fla., Martinez and many other Florida politicians are opposed to such a deal being pursued by some House Republicans.

Nelson said Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., and the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, agreed to seek Defense Department input on how drilling would affect gulf ranges used by the Air Force and Navy.
(snip/...)

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051006/APN/510061198&cachetime=3&template=dateline

[Judi Lynn]

1. Floridians help block California Republican plan to renew drilling

Article Last Updated: Thursday, October 06, 2005 - 8:46:22 AM PST

Floridians help block California Republican plan to renew drilling
By FRANK HARTZELL Of The Beacon -

A California Republican congressman's effort to use Hurricane Katrina's devastation as reason to reopen California's long closed coastline to natural gas and possibly oil drilling has apparently been defeated for now by a Republican-led Florida congressional delegation.

The gas drilling effort, which gained national publicity and local opposition over the past two weeks, was led by Congressman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy despite two decades of bipartisan opposition to offshore oil drilling in California.

Pombo pulled his panel's legislation that would have allowed renewed offshore oil drilling in California and the eastern seaboard after nearly all House members from Florida attacked the plan, according to Congress Daily AM. Pombo will pursue legislation for oil and natural gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Congressman Mike Thompson's office tipped the Advocate-News and The Beacon off to the development coming out of Florida on Monday, providing a copy of the article in Congress Daily AM.
(snip/...)

http://www.mendocinobeacon.com/Stories/0,1413,94~3593~3083186,00.html



Pombo on the left.