'Environmental issues have also been raised.'

[underpants]

Offshore drilling proposal is defeated again

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/sports.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-06-12-0113.html

By BILLY HOUSE
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- A congressional proponent of more oil drilling off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts promised to continue his fight yesterday, after being dealt yet another defeat.

A House panel voted 9 to 6 in a party-line vote against lifting the 27-year-old offshore drilling moratorium.

The amendment by Rep. John E. Peterson, R-Pa., would have opened drilling off Florida's Gulf Coast and off the coasts of North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina in now-protected areas 50 to 200 miles offshore.

His measure also would have opened the Pacific coast to oil drilling.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service says that 430 million to 2.96 billion barrels of oil and 5.4 trillion to 27.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could lie off the mid-Atlantic coast from the Delaware-New Jersey state line to the North Carolina-South Carolina state line.

If the maximum estimates for mid-Atlantic field are correct, the area could have enough oil to supply U.S. needs for 144 days and enough natural gas to supply the country for just over 12 months.

Virginia manufacturers who use large amounts of natural gas have pushed the state to back the lifting of a federal moratorium on drilling in the Atlantic.

The General Assembly passed a bill in 2006 endorsing federal efforts to assess the energy potential off Virginia's shore with a 50-mile buffer for natural-gas drilling only.

A 1987 study by state and federal geologists ranked the potential for offshore Virginia oil and natural gas as "fair to poor."

Peterson argues that opening up more offshore drilling would send energy markets a message that "vast amounts of our own oil and natural gas supply are now in play."

He said that would dampen speculation in oil markets.

Opponents argued before the vote by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies that much of the federal land already leased to oil and gas drillers is not being aggressively developed. Environmental issues have also been raised.