Proposed Ban on Pacific Drilling
May 13, 2010
In the ‘Western Senators Propose Ban on Pacific Drilling’ article, West Coast senators proposed a permanent ban on oil drilling in the Pacific on Thursday. Shortly after the Gulf accid
ent, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger withdrew a plan for new offshore drilling. Since there was no current plan to present the problem of offshore drilling, the move made by senators from Oregon, California and Washington was highly symbolic. On Thursday Senators Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez from New Jersey and Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, all Democrats, tried to raise oil company liability because the current statistics only represent a small fraction of the damage caused by the BP spill in the Gulf.
While these Senators were busy trying to push the bill, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, was busy blocking their bill. She claimed their bill discouraged all oil exploration. The Democrats are not letting this stop them though; they are going to try again to change the liability law.
ent, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger withdrew a plan for new offshore drilling. Since there was no current plan to present the problem of offshore drilling, the move made by senators from Oregon, California and Washington was highly symbolic. On Thursday Senators Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez from New Jersey and Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, all Democrats, tried to raise oil company liability because the current statistics only represent a small fraction of the damage caused by the BP spill in the Gulf.While these Senators were busy trying to push the bill, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, was busy blocking their bill. She claimed their bill discouraged all oil exploration. The Democrats are not letting this stop them though; they are going to try again to change the liability law.
Due to the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Democratic Senators from several states are pushing for the costs of the oil company liability in a spill from $75 million to $10 billion. States such as Alaska are against this because they say it will discourage oil drillers from taking such a risk. This disagreement is an example of the senator’s different political beliefs and how it affects their policymaking in the Senate.
The Minerals Management Service is responsible for promoting oil exploration and collecting royalties from it, as well as regulating the safety and environmental practices of oil drilling. The Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, would like to split up the two main functions of this agency because he feels like their interests conflict with each other. He also wanted to do the split to end the sometimes-too-close relationship between government officials and regulated companies.
The Minerals Management Service is responsible for promoting oil exploration and collecting royalties from it, as well as regulating the safety and environmental practices of oil drilling. The Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, would like to split up the two main functions of this agency because he feels like their interests conflict with each other. He also wanted to do the split to end the sometimes-too-close relationship between government officials and regulated companies.
We belive that the offshore drilling should continue, but the liability price should be increased. This could discourage some drillers, but that might not be the worst thing.
Photo Credit: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/us/14spill.html?ref=us
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Submitted by: Anne Lucado and Hannah Slovacek
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