標題:Democrats Reluctantly Embrace Offshore Drilling By CARL HULSE Published: September 11, 2008 WASHINGTON — For decades, opposition to new offshore oil drilling has been a core principle of Congressional Democrats, ranking in the party pantheon somewhere just below protecting Social Security and increasing the minimum wage. But a concerted Republican assault over domestic oil production and the threat of political backlash from financially pressed motorists have Democrats poised to embrace a fundamental shift in energy policy. Even more surprising, the turnabout is led by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who has a history of fighting oil drilling going back to the early days of her career in California. Under a measure being assembled for a vote in the House next week, oil rigs could go up 50 miles from the shores of states that welcome drilling and 100 miles off any section of the United States coast — a stark reversal on an issue that has been a Democratic environmental touchstone since the 1980s. “It shows what $4 a gallon gas will do,” said Daniel J. Weiss, a senior fellow on energy and climate issues at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, an advocacy group. Republicans and oil industry representatives are skeptical that Democrats are serious about allowing offshore exploration. They say that the outlines of the emerging bill do not go far enough to satisfy them and that the legislation appears intended to do more political than policy good. And they say a decision not to share any new oil royalties with the states eliminates a prime incentive for states to say yes to drilling. Yet Republicans acknowledge that any move to support expanded offshore oil drilling after years of resistance is a sea change for Democrats, though one resulting from Republican success at elevating domestic oil production into a top-tier issue in the 2008 presidential and Congressional races. “Clearly we have seen the majority feel the pressure to have to move on this issue over the past four months,” said Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the No. 2 Republican in the House. That movement is unsettling some drilling foes who have allied themselves for years with Democrats to keep an annual ban on oil leasing and drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico off of Florida. Anna Aurilio, director of the Washington office of Environment America, said Congress was on the verge of sacrificing 30 years of coastal protection. “It is a huge power grab on the part of the oil industry and its allies,” Ms. Aurilio said, “and it won’t do anything to help the public and will hurt the coast.” Ms. Pelosi and her fellow Democrats say that they are making the change reluctantly but that the political climate rendered it impossible to try to retain the drilling ban this year. So rather than see the moratorium expire and open the way to drilling as close as three miles from the coast, they said they were pushing any drilling at least 50 miles offshore, requiring states to agree to it and tying the whole package to a series of clean energy initiatives that have so far languished in Congress. “The reality,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters Thursday, is “if we don’t have something in the bill, it’s drilling three miles offshore.” Just weeks ago, Ms. Pelosi was adamant that she would not clear the way for a House vote on new coastal exploration. But Republicans, with the help of well-financed advocacy groups, had been making political inroads on the drilling question, making some Democrats, especially those from swing districts and those facing difficult re-election fights, anxious enough that they began clamoring for a chance to vote for more offshore drilling. Republicans kept up their demands for such a vote over the August recess, occupying the darkened House floor to make their case, drawing some news media attention and keeping the issue alive. Ms. Pelosi then opened the door to a vote on more offshore drilling as long as it was coupled with a list of Democratic energy initiatives like new alternative fuel requirements for utility companies, renewable energy tax incentives to be paid for by repealing federal oil industry subsidies, new natural gas programs and a series of home and office energy efficiency measures. If Democrats had to allow more offshore oil drilling, they wanted something substantial in return. “Every threat is an opportunity,” said Mr. Weiss of the Center for American Progress. “She is using the threat of oil drilling to pass a clean energy agenda that is otherwise stalled.” The extent of the drilling to be sought by Democrats remained in flux until party leaders were ready to disclose the parameters of their legislation Wednesday. As late as Tuesday, Democrats were considering opening up drilling off four states: the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia. Moderate and conservative Democrats pushed for more, and Democrats decided to back the 50-mile policy nationwide. Though they have not seen a detailed measure, Republicans said early indications were they would not favor the bill despite the new offshore drilling. They said the measure evidently would not promote nuclear energy and other potential oil sources like oil shale. And the oil industry does not like it since it would eliminate an estimated $17 billion in tax breaks over 10 years, a change the industry sees as a tax increase that could drive oil investment overseas. And it keeps parts of Florida’s gulf coast, where large natural gas deposits have been found, off limits. “Based upon what we have seen so far, this bill comes up short on the energy side and long on the tax side,” said Mark W. Kibbe, director of federal relations for the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group. The Senate, meanwhile, was preparing next week to consider its own, bipartisan energy measure that would also open up some new coastal areas for drilling. Though the measures are similar, there are differences that would have to be reconciled should the measures clear the House and Senate, making it difficult to complete action in the two weeks Congress is scheduled to remain in Washington. The energy debate also comes as gasoline prices have declined and on the heels of disclosures of a scandal in the Interior Department branch that handles oil royalty payments, with revelations of federal officials having parties and sexual relations with oil industry representatives. Democrats said the inquiry would result in provisions to make sure the agency was operating above board. Ms. Pelosi noted that she had previously expressed a fear that the agency was too cozy with the industry. “Now it seems like an inappropriate way to say it,” she said, referring to the illicit relations detailed in the investigative report. A version of this article appeared in print on September 12, 2008, on page A17 of the New York edition. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/us/12cong.html?hp 新聞來源: (需有正確連結) -- --

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