Both Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner voted against cloture [1] for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s offshore drilling plan, which would have allowed lease sales off the coast of Virginia to go forward.
This is not surprising given what Kevin Hall, Warner’s spokesman, told Bearing Drift [2] recently:
“Senator Warner supports expanded domestic energy production, including off of Virginia’s coast. Right now we’re looking at Sen. McConnell’s proposal to see what provision, if any, it might make for incorporating lessons we may have learned from the Gulf oil spill. Sen. Warner also believes any drilling off of Virginia’s coast should include revenue sharing.”
Additionally, Senator Webb told the Washington Post [3]:
“I have long advocated opening up more of the nation’s outer continental shelf resources to responsible natural gas and oil exploration,” Webb said. “However, states deserve fair access to their own oil and gas reserves and an equitable share of any revenues from the sale of their offshore resources.”
Both Senators also voted the day before to target only the oil and natural gas industry by eliminating deductions taken on costs by all industry. Cloture also failed there [4].
I asked both House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling whether, despite our senators rhetoric of support for drilling offshore that their actions are to the detriment of Virginia being able to move forward on domestic energy production:
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The president announced earlier this week that seismic research off the coast could move forward.