Posted: 03/09/2006
Bigger Off-Shore Drilling Bill To Help Consumers At The Pump
NCPA E-Team scholar urges Congress to go even further in their efforts to expand off-shore drilling.
DALLAS (March 9, 2006) - As the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed a bipartisan bill that expands oil and gas drilling, National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett applauded Congress' efforts but encouraged them to go even further.
"Oil and gas production can be undertaken with minimal risk to the environment," said Burnett. "Oil and gas will be critical to our continued economic progress well into the future. The public has suffered for too long from high energy prices because of a failure of environmental lobbyists to acknowledge that fact."
The measure, which now goes before the full Senate, would require the Interior Department to lease several million acres of the disputed "181 area" within a year of enactment. Experts estimate that the area contains as much as 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The plan does require a 100-mile buffer zone between exploration activities and the Florida shore.
"While a good first step, modestly expanding drilling off the coast of Florida or opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is at best a Band-aid solution," said Burnett. "Congress should allow any coastal state that wishes to permit oil and gas production off their coast and share the lease revenues. Those that did would benefit from the additional revenue and the country would benefit from new supplies of oil and gas."