House panel votes to end drilling ban

The House Appropriations Committee voted on May 10 to lift a long-standing congressional moratorium that prohibits exploration and development of natural gas in most of the outer continental shelf. By a 37-to-25 vote, the panel approved an amendment from Rep. John E. Peterson (R-Pa.) that would eliminate the ban in the fiscal 2007 Interior Department spending bill. The measure would not repeal the existing ban on offshore oil production nor would it affect a presidential moratorium, in effect until 2012, that bars oil and gas drilling in virtually all coastal waters outside the central and western Gulf of Mexico. The offshore bans have been renewed annually since 1982 through the Interior Department appropriations bill. But with U.S. consumers paying the highest natural gas prices in the world, lawmakers have been under growing pressure to allow wider offshore leasing. "Today's action represents the first time in 25 years that a congressional committee has voted to reduce barriers to U.S. natural gas production that is so vital to America's consumers, economy, and jobs," said American Chemistry Council President Jack N. Gerard. The legislation now heads to the full House, which rejected Peterson's drilling plan last year.