Rep. Ken Andrus, R-Lava Hot Springs, spoke out in favor of HB 464, the oil and gas pre-emption bill. He said two years ago, his daughter, a newly minted teacher, was offered $46,700 a year to teach in Wyoming, plus full benefits. "We have been envious of Wyoming and their gas and oil resources, and now we have an opportunity to potentially reap some of that benefit for ourselves," Andrus said. "If you want to drill a water well, you don't go to the county to get that permit. It's a state resource. And we're handling this gas and oil as the same." He said, "If we want to keep the gas and oil industry out of the state, then we can turn it over to the counties. If we want to develop the resources, then in the legislation we have a reasonable way to control and regulate it."

Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis, told the House, "The opponents are missing the point because this is production. Production pays the taxes, provides the jobs, pays the bills so that the rest of us can have a job and pay the taxes and pay our bills. It's simply the free-enterprise system."

In addition to House Resources Chair Bert Stevenson, the bill is co-sponsored by House Speaker Lawerence Denney and Rep. Judy Boyle, both Midvale Republicans; they're both from Washington County, the very county that's just passed its own regulations for gas and oil drilling after a year a work - which HB 464 would forbid. Numerous residents of the county testified against the bill at an earlier House committee hearing, but the committee then approved the measure unanimously, setting up today's debate and vote in the full House.

Denney told the House, "Fear and uncertainty come with any new industry. I'd just like to point out that Idaho is not the first state to develop an oil and gas industry. ... We are not reinventing the wheel here, and I can tell you that most other states grant absolute primacy to siting for the drilling and exploration of oil." He said, "We control from the state level all other natural resources. ... These are good-paying jobs, and they are good-paying jobs with benefits."