Senate Bill Would Open Millions of Acres in Gulf of Mexico to Oil, Gas Dri

[lovuian]

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=10935&ref=rss

WASHINGTON — The Senate is taking up an election-year bill that would open a large area of the central Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling.

The bill would affect an 8.3 million-acre area believed to contain large amounts of natural gas and 1.3 billion barrels of oil. Opponents of the legislation fear it's a first step to lifting a moratorium that for decades has prohibited drilling in 85 percent of the country's coastal waters from New England to Alaska.

Senators were expected to vote Wednesday to begin debate on the legislation, a largely procedural move that could set up a final vote later this week or early next.

A month ago, the House passed a much broader offshore energy development bill that would lift the ban on oil and gas drilling that has been in effect for 25 years in most waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico. That bill would still bar drilling within 50 miles of the shoreline, but it would open waters beyond that to energy companies unless a state specifically acts to protect waters within 100 miles of shore.

Senate Republican leaders said they didn't have enough votes to push such a broad measure through the Senate.
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