The House of Representatives approved a pair of bills Wednesday that would permanently ban oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and extend a moratorium on drilling in the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico near Florida.
The Democratic anti-drilling bills, which won’t be considered by the Republican-controlled Senate, did earn some GOP votes, mostly coastal Republicans who worry about safety and harm to tourism.
Nearly two dozen Republicans voted on the bill to ban offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf, which passed by a 248-180 vote. A dozen Republicans voted for a second bill, approved with a 238-189 vote, barring drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Representative Francis Rooney of Florida, the co-chairman of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, sponsored both bills.
“This is a great day for our Florida delegation,” Rooney told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “This should be a no-brainer for Republicans when you look at the compelling need for Florida to be protected from any risk at all.”
But Democrats mainly intended to set the terms of the energy and climate change debate as the 2020 presidential campaign intensifies.
“President Trump wants to give the entire U.S. coastline to Big Oil,” said Representative Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee. “Coastal drilling destroys beaches, businesses, communities and ways of life.”
Passage of the bills comes as President Trump aims to expand U.S. offshore oil and gas production beyond the most drilled areas in the central and western parts of the Gulf of Mexico. Most Democratic presidential candidates, by contrast, have proposed to ban all new fossil fuel leases on federal lands and waters.
Nearly a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from energy production on public lands.
House GOP leaders introduced alternative legislation Wednesday preventing presidents from banning new oil, gas, and coal leases on federal land or water without congressional approval, a deliberate callout to Democratic presidential candidates who have proposed to do this.
The Trump administration has delayed releasing a highly anticipated plan to expand offshore oil and gas drilling due to a court ruling this year that cast doubt over the legality of opening new areas to drilling.
Before the court ruling, the Interior Department had prepared to dramatically expand offshore oil and gas drilling, releasing a five-year plan in January 2018 to open nearly all federal waters on every coast.
Coastal state governors and lawmakers from both parties have pressured Trump to scale back the plan.
But the oil and gas industry is pushing Trump to expand drilling opportunities.
Its main interest is in opening parts of the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, just west of Florida, where companies can easily connect to existing oil and gas infrastructure.
Congress has a moratorium on offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico that expires in June 2022. One of the bills approved Wednesday would expand that ban permanently.
The two Democratic bills would ban drilling in areas representing 30% of recoverable U.S. offshore oil and gas reserves, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the legislation.
“It would be bad policy to permanently deny access to extensive energy resources the U.S. economy relies on daily and will continue to rely on for many decades to come,” said Jack Howard, senior vice president of congressional and public affairs at the chamber.
