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House Republicans push offshore drilling

By | May 6, 2011, 3:58 PM PDT

House Republicans are accusing President Obama of bottling up domestic oil production.

House Republicans are accusing President Obama of bottling up domestic oil production.

The solution to rising gas prices and lingering unemployment is for the Obama administration to grant more leases for more offshore oil and gas drilling, House Republicans say.

Today, the House passed H.R. 1230, the “Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act, a bill that would impose deadlines on the Department of the Interior to sell leases. The Secretary of the Interior would be required to grant approvals within 30 days of the department receiving an application - with the option for extensions.

House Republicans accuse President Obama of canceling and delaying leases sales, thereby “blocking” domestic energy production, costing jobs, and even worsening the national debt. Companion bills, H.R. 1229 and H.R. 1231, would open up new areas to drilling off of the Atlantic coast.

The Obama administration has argued that 30 days is not a sufficient review period to examine the environmental impact of new oil exploration; however, it may have overstated how rigid previous laws were in its damage control effort following BP’s Gulf oil spill.

Scant progress has been made to make drilling safer, and it’s unclear how or whether the new legislation would worsen oversight - leading to future disasters.

The President has argued that most existing offshore leases granted by the Interior Department have not been used for development or exploration. Democratic lawmakers have suggested that oil companies should be charged for the vacancies to encourage development on those sites.

Domestic oil production will not have a measurable effect on world oil prices in both the near and long term; it’s a political canard. Analysts say that it wouldn’t, and it’s impossible that new drilling platforms could begin pumping oil and gas soon enough to relieve the public’s pain at the pump.

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David Worthington

About David Worthington

David Worthington is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

David Worthington

David Worthington

Contributing Editor

David Worthington has written for BetaNews, eWeek, PC World, Technologizer and ZDNet. Formerly, he was a senior editor at SD Times. He holds a degree from Temple University. He is based in New York.

Follow him on Twitter.

David Worthington

David Worthington

David does not have financial holdings that would influence how or what he covers. Occasionally he consults for other companies; should David cover a topic in which a client is involved, he will disclose this fact in his writing. His views do not represent those of ScaleOut Software.

He writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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+2 Votes
+ -
Kabuki Theater......
.......with the actors in donkey and elephant makeup.

When are we going to finally realize it is the same players, the same script, over and over again?

We demonize the energy industry yet their track record is exceptional compared to the massive and absolute failure of the US Government and its regulations.

The Government is the problem yet we keep looking to it for the solutions. We are fools in their Kabuki theater.

- Department of Energy created with sole goal of making America energy independent. Fail
- Hundreds of billions over decades into alternative energy programs. Fail
- Accelerate natural gas vehicle conversion. Fail
- Ethanol Program: Fail
- Commercialize on our clean coal investments: Fail
- Grow nuclear energy. Fail
- Expand safe proven gas and oil reserves. Fail
- Create competitive open market for renewable energy. Fail

- Regulate US energy developers out of business. Score!
- Regulate and tax energy exploration industry out of business: Score!
- Transfer trillions of dollars to terrorist nations. Score!
- Enable an anti-American monopolistic global oil cartel. Score!
- Grow massive federal bureaucracies and regulatory agencies that do absolutely nothing except shackle US businesses, raise taxes, and grow more government: Score!
Posted by cd3rd
Updated - 8th May 2011
+2 Votes
+ -
RE: House Republicans push offshore drilling
President Obama pushes offshore driling... in Brazil, and then says we'll be their best customer. George Soros payback doesn't come cheaply.
Posted by bb_apptix
9th May 2011
+2 Votes
+ -
drill
It's the same excuse from the democrats; it'll be 10 years before anything comes of drilling. Too bad they didn't start drilling 10 years ago, we'd be better off now.
Posted by philwhite42@...
9th May 2011
-1 Votes
+ -
Republican Ruse
The puppet Republicans are again dancing for their masters, the oil industry. This time they've cloaked their push to get more money rolling into the coffers of Exxon and Chevron by disingenuously saying offshore exploration will do something about high gas prices. Drilling, even starting today, would have zilch effect on gasoline prices. Benefits of offshore drilling, if any, would take decades to realize. I wonder how it feels to continuously live a lie as do the Republicans.
Posted by dangnad
9th May 2011
0 Votes
+ -
Why do anything?
Everybody acknowledges that even a massive effort in building solar cells and wind farms won't have a major effect for at least a decade -- and that's with massive government subsidies.

Why bother going green????
Posted by zackers
9th May 2011
+2 Votes
+ -
drilling
Funny, when Bush reversed the drilling ban, prices dropped. They were down to around $1.90 when he left office. Now, under Obama, who is hostile to energy development in this country, it has more than doubled. Some Change that was. I can only Hope it will end in January 2013.
Posted by philwhite42@...
9th May 2011
-2 Votes
+ -
Hilarious
So, the financial industry and the home ownership problems that led to a sharp recession had nothing to do with gas prices dropping to $1.90 when GWB left office.
Posted by sboverie
9th May 2011
0 Votes
+ -
You need a history lesson
You need to review the history of oil prices. Oil prices peaked in July, 2008 when China and India reduced their national subsidies for gas, diesel, and kerosene, thus exposing their populations to the real price of oil and reducing global demand.

After that, oil prices were rapidly decreasing even before the financial crisis of September, 2008. Did the resulting recession help bring down prices even further? Sure. But the fact that they're now over $100/barrel as the world economy recovers (it's still not back to normal) indicates that this is about what oil will cost in the long run. Since the world is not going to radically reduce oil consumption anytime soon, we need more oil.
Posted by zackers
9th May 2011
0 Votes
+ -
History Lesson
Gee thanks. My objection was that the previous poster was rewriting history. The price of oil comes from more than political factors and parroting partisan lines does everyone a disservice. The price of oil peaked around $140 in July, 2008 and by November had dropped $100. This was a huge bubble that popped when the financial markets went down. I watched the price of oil change due to increase or decrease in US unemployment or an unexpected surplus in oil on hand. The per barrel price is not caused by political decisions.
Posted by sboverie
9th May 2011
0 Votes
+ -
drilling
last week Smart Planet said the US is net exporter of oil let's keep this exported oil at home
Posted by quahog55
9th May 2011
0 Votes
+ -
Refined products
The US is an exporter of refined products. We are a net importer of crude oil.
Posted by riverat1
9th May 2011
0 Votes
+ -
Drilling
I have no problem with exploring and drilling for oil if it is done as hygenically as possible. The gulf spill from last year is a good example of sloppy practices in the oil industry; the blow out preventer that failed because of a poor design, the cement casing that failed because of poor design and the problems that caused the rig to blow up need to be addressed better to reduce environmental problems.
Posted by sboverie
9th May 2011
0 Votes
+ -
BP
Of all the oil companies working here, BP is the worst. They have over 95% of the industry complaints according to article in Popular Mechanics last year. I would think it would be better to allow drilling here and keep some control over these companies rather than having to rely on foreign companies offshore that the US has no control over.
Posted by philwhite42@...
10th May 2011
+1 Vote
+ -
Agreed
Speaking as a conservationist, it would be better to regulate the corporations to prevent the SNAFU that happened last year. There should also be an international agreement on offshore drilling that sets the standards of operation to prevent accidents and respond quicker to contain spills.
Posted by sboverie
10th May 2011
0 Votes
+ -
Obama learned a new phrase this week.
Drill baby drill is now allowed to be spoken in the White House.

@sboverie. We do not need new regulations as much as we need enforcement of existing regulations.

BP's drilling permit, granted under the Bush administration, included a waiver of the required detailed spill management plan.

Giving such waivers has happened for decades regardless of party in power. Both Bush presidents and Clinton gave them out as did the Obama administration before the spill.
Posted by Hates Idiots
17th May 2011
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