Nick Snow
Washington Correspondent
If an Outer Continental Shelf leasing reform bill comes before the full House during the lame-duck session, it should be S. 3711 and not the broader HR 4761, 18 House Republicans told Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
"We opposed the House OCS bill when it came before us in June, and we continue to do so. If the House needs to consider an OCS bill, we ought to take up the Senate-passed bill," they said in a Nov. 15 letter to Boehner.
The letter was not intended to suggest that all the signers would vote for the Senate bill, they added in a footnote. Several House members who voted against HR 4761 would not sign the letter because they did not want to even recommend bringing the Senate's bill to the floor when the House returns on Dec. 5, the signers said.
Backers of S. 3711, which focuses on the eastern Gulf of Mexico, have dropped the idea of sending the two bills to conference and are pressing for the House to pass the Senate version instead, congressional sources have told OGJ (OGJ, Oct. 9, 2006, p. 27).
Two of HR 4761's main sponsors defended their measure, which would provide a way for coastal states beyond the Gulf of Mexico to share in future OCS revenues because it would open more areas for natural gas development.
Noting that US industries cannot compete in global markets when they pay the most for gas, Rep. John E. Peterson (R-Pa.) said on CNBC's "Squawkbox" on Nov. 15, "We have to make natural gas affordable in this country; we have lots of it. There's never been a beach eroded by natural gas drilling. We've given good distances offshore for protection. We're the only country in the world that doesn't use its outer continental shelf for the production of energy."
During the same program, Neil Abercrombie (D-Ha.), said: "You have to look to the future. All over the world, everybody is pumping natural gas. Norway, New Zealand, China is doing it for Cuba—right off the coast of Florida! We're the ones who are falling behind. If we intend to be competitive in any way, shape, or form in the future of this 21st century, we have to tap our natural gas resources."
But Reps. Charles H. Bass (R-NH), Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Md.), Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-NY), Michael N. Castle (R-Del.), Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.), Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.), Wayne T. Gilchrist (R-Md.), Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.), Timothy V. Johnson (R-Ill.), Sue W. Kelly (R-NY), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Ray H. LaHood (R-Ill.), Jim Leach (R-Iowa), Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), Jim Saxton (R-NJ), and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) said HR 4761 would go too far.
"The American people made clear on election day that [they want] Congress to take pragmatic, targeted approaches to solving problems rather than engage in ideological sparring. Continued efforts to promote the House bill—which would open the entire US coastline to oil drilling and which would sweep away environmental protections, undermine local control, and increase the deficit—would signal that we have not gotten the message of election day," they said in their letter to Boehner.
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