In an exercise reflecting the fact that its members must face reelection every 2 years, the US House of Representatives adopted three bills on Sept. 11 that would block federal oil and gas leasing off the east and west coasts, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain.
HR 1146, which Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) introduced on Feb. 11, would bar the US Bureau of Land Management from holding two oil and gas lease sales on ANWR’s coastal plain, as required under a provision in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act. It received 225 yeas (including four from Republicans in eastern coastal states) and 193 nays (including five from Democrats around the country and one from an Independent, Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan).
Huffman’s bill passed the day before the US Department of the Interior released a final environmental impact statement for the two area-wide ANWR lease sales of not less than 400,000 acres each that the law requires.
HR 1941, which freshman Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-SC) introduced on Mar. 28, would permanently ban federal leasing off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It received 238 yeas (including 12 from Republicans) and 189 nays (including five from Democrats and one from an Independent, Rep. Amash).
HR 205, which Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) introduced on Jan. 3, would extend a leasing moratorium off the state’s Atlantic coast and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico east of the Military Mission Line. It received 248 yeas (including 22 from Republicans) and 180 nays (including five from Democrats and one from the independent, Amash).
The three bills initially passed out of the Natural Resources Committee. Its chairman, Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), said it has played a leading role in passing environmental legislation during this session of Congress.
“Too many Republicans and the fossil fuel industry treat oil drilling as the only conceivable source of jobs in this country, and that’s just not a serious position,” he said on Sept. 12. “We need massive investments in clean, renewable energy and a meaningful economic transition away from dependence on fossil fuels.”
Republican proposal dies
Republicans on the committee introduced their own bill on Sept. 11 which they said would address obstacles to more extensive federal onshore and offshore oil and gas leasing. Presented as a “common sense alternative,” it went nowhere.
Neither, apparently, will the three measures the House approved and sent to the Senate on Sept. 11. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s Energy Subcommittee, announced that day that he would block the bills from further consideration.
