The Associated Press is reporting that the U.S. House of Representatives passed an oil industry regulation bill that increases safety standards and removes any liability cap for oil companies by a vote of 209-193 .
The bill, which obviously is a knee-jerk reaction to the BP Oil Spill, was unanimously opposed by Republicans and many coastal Democrats.
“Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington state, the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, called the new fees on oil and gas production a “$22 billion energy tax” that would cost jobs and raise energy prices. Republicans also complained that lifting the liability cap would prevent all but the largest oil companies from offshore drilling because they won’t be able to get insurance.”
AP is saying however that the bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate, which is not likely to get the 60 votes to bring the bill to a vote. That debate is likely to occur in September after the summer recess.
As expected, the passage of the bill brought a strong rebuke by Jack Gerard, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.
“Instead of addressing the risks of offshore development by improving safety and establishing a robust system for covering the costs of possible future accidents, this bill effectively bans development and sends thousands of workers in offshore communities to the unemployment lines,” said Gerard. “The inability to develop in the deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico, whether through an explicit moratorium or through policies that create a de-facto moratorium, will cost more than 175,000 jobs a year, the majority of them in already hard-hit Gulf Coast communities. Americans want and deserve improvements in offshore safety and this can be accomplished without putting thousands of people out of work and increasing the nation’s reliance on foreign sources of energy.”
