WASHINGTON — With Democrats citing last year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a cautionary tale, the Senate on Wednesday decisively rejected a Republican plan to allow more coastal oil and gas exploration and to speed the issuance of drilling permits to oil companies.
The 57-42 vote against the measure came after Republicans on Tuesday rejected a Democratic plan to end tax breaks for oil companies as both parties sought to gain political advantage with frustrated consumers contending with high prices at the pump.
Republicans said that the measure proposed by Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, was a modest, common-sense approach to lowering gas prices by trying to influence the market through increased production from the nation’s ample resources.
Fifty Democrats, five Republicans and two independents opposed the measure; 42 Republicans backed it. Sixty votes were required to advance the bill, so it fell 18 short.
Democrats dismissed the Republican plan as a risky effort to accelerate drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and along the East Coast without the necessary safeguards in place.
The New York Times
