NYT/Reuters: Congress Approves Offshore Drilling Bill

[DeepModem Mom]

Congress Approves Offshore Drilling Bill
By REUTERS
Published: December 9, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hours before adjourning for the year, the U.S. Congress on Saturday sent President George W. Bush legislation that would open 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and natural gas drilling and redistribute billions of dollars in royalties to four Gulf states.

The drilling measure was wrapped into a broad tax and trade package that the U.S. Senate approved by a 79-9 vote, hours after the House of Representatives approved it.

Rep. Bobby Jindal, a Louisiana Republican and one of the drilling measure's main supporters, said Bush will sign the bill into law.

The offshore legislation ends a 25-year ban on drilling in deep waters about 125 miles south of Florida's Panhandle, but extends a moratorium on drilling in other Florida waters until 2022....

***

More offshore areas would have been opened if Republican House leaders had won Senate support for a bill passed by the House earlier this year that sought to open nearly all U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coastal waters more than 100 miles offshore....

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-congress-offshore-drilling.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Buzz Clik]

1. This won't be popular with the people and outgoing gov. of Florida.

They opposed this legislation forever.

[texpatriot2004]

2. GOP Culture of Corruption and the Cover-Up Congress strike

again.

[VegasWolf]

3. 79-9 vote. Corruption is just not for GOPers anymore! nt

[badgervan]

4. Eventually....

... there is going to be a catastrophic oil spill. Say good-bye to some of the nicest beaches in the world: Pensacola Beach, Panama City, Destin, Gulf Shores, and many more. Short-sighted, greedy, irresponsible, and harmful to the environment: all things republican.
And they wonder why they lost this past election big time. Just wait until the next one. Looks like Big Oil even trumps the Decider's little bro. What fools.