By the OGJ Online Staff
WASHINGTON, DC, July 18 -- The US Senate Wednesday passed an amendment to a pending spending bill that places a 2-year ban on any new oil and gas drilling in the Great Lakes.
Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) offered the measure.
The amendment also directs the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a study of the environmental effects and threats posed to the Great Lakes by drilling. The Senate approved the measure by voice vote.
A similar ban on drilling in the Great Lakes is in the House version of the bill, HR 2311, the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act.
The bill funds many Department of Energy programs for fiscal 2002, starting Oct. 1.
The House bill also symbolically seeks to block construction of a natural gas pipeline from the Gulf of Mexico to Florida.
The Senate bill does not include the pipeline provision but is still subject to amendments.
The Senate signaled it supports some drilling when it voted to preserve Lease Sale 181 in the eastern Gulf of Mexico under a separate spending bill. However, neither house of Congress appears inclined to approve drilling outside of traditional areas like portions of the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska.