Panel Blocks Oil Drilling Off The Coast Vote Also Cuts Arts Funding, Scraps Bureau Of Mines

Republicans and Democrats joined forces Tuesday to reinstate a ban on oil and gas drilling off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, California and other states.

It was a major setback for the domestic oil industry and its backers in Congress, including House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La.

“This is America’s love for the coastline being articulated in political terms,” said Richard Charter, co-chairman of the Outer Continental Shelf Coalition, an anti-drilling group. “It turns out that this country’s love for its coast runs pretty deep.”

The vote to restore the moratorium was on an amendment pushed by Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., and Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla.

The drilling measure was approved as part of an $11.9 billion Interior appropriations bill that also scraps the Bureau of Mines and the Interior Department’s National Biological Service, whose responsibilities include providing information for decisions on protecting threatened species.

The measure calls a halt to all listings of species as threatened or endangered until the Endangered Species Act is overhauled, shifting money that would have gone for listing to operation of wildlife refuges.

It cuts by 40 percent funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and reduces the overall department budget by 13 percent, but includes money for national park operations, watershed restoration and timber research in the Olympic Peninsula.

Backers of the moratorium on offshore drilling say it is essential to protect fisheries, wildlife, and the fragile coastal ecology from oil spills.

Opponents say the restrictions on drilling are costing jobs in the oil industry and increasing reliance on foreign oil.

In recent years, the moratorium on offshore drilling has been included each year as part of the Interior Appropriations spending bill. But last week the Interior Appropriations subcommittee voted 7-6 to end the moratorium.

Tuesday’s reversal was a major victory for Dicks and his allies, who scrambled for votes across party lines. After the vote, Dicks rated it among the top five legislative achievements of his career. He was assisted by the fact that so many Republican members are from California and Florida, where there is strong support for protecting the coasts from pollution.

“It was a great victory. To be able to keep this in place was really great, especially in a Republican Congress,” said Dicks.

“This is really important to the people of Washington state. There is tremendous grassroots support for this. You’ve got sensitive areas off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, California and Florida that the people from those states, on a bipartisan basis, are extremely protective of,” Dicks said.

Livingston said he has not decided whether to try again to kill the moratorium through an amendment when the bill reaches the House floor.