WASHINGTON — A long-standing congressional ban on new offshore oil drilling will expire in seven days, with Democratic leaders conceding Tuesday that they stand no chance of renewing it this year over President Bush’s opposition — and in an election year when gasoline prices have become a hot campaign issue.
By lapsing, the issue will gain greater prominence in the presidential election because it will be up to the next president and Congress to decide whether to renew all or part of the ban, which first was imposed in 1981 to put much of the California coast off limits to new rigs and expanded to much of the rest of the U.S. coast in 1985.
“This next election will decide what our drilling policy will be,” said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
Republican presidential nominee John McCain, like Bush, has called for lifting the ban entirely, while Democratic nominee Barack Obama has said he would consider limited offshore drilling as part of a broader energy-policy compromise.
“After a long summer of $4 gas, with winter home-heating bills on the way, this good news could not have come too soon,” said Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida, chairman of the House Republican Conference.
Once the ban expires, oil companies could seek federal approval to drill 3 miles offshore or farther. Supporters of the ban hope that before any new drilling can begin, they can renew it or at least win approval of compromise legislation that would let states decide whether to permit energy exploration 50 miles off their coast.
“I hope that when Congress revisits this issue next year, with a new president, we can negotiate a compromise that respects the need to protect coastal states and puts our country on a path to a clean energy future,” said Rep. Lois Capps, a Democrat from Santa Barbara, Calif., where a 1969 oil spill devastated the coastline.
The drilling ban had been included annually in spending bills. But the current ban expires Sept. 30, and 155 House Republicans and 49 Senate Republicans vowed to fight any effort to extend it as part of a must-pass bill needed to keep the government funded into next year.
That spending bill, which will come before the House and the Senate this week before Congress recesses for the fall campaign, will include $25 billion in loans to help the auto industry build more fuel-efficient cars.
Jeffrey Eshelman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America said that “in light of the financial meltdown, lifting the offshore ban makes perfect sense. It means more American energy, more jobs and increased tax and royalty revenue for the U.S. Treasury.”
Once the ban expires, said Richard Charter, a consultant to the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, “coastal states could reasonably expect a pre-lease planning timeline of approximately 18-24 months, at a minimum, between the approval of a federal lease sale” at the Minerals Management Service “and the actual sale of seafloor lands and drilling rights to the oil industry in a lease sale.”
