CORRECT: Senate Panel Debates Offshore Drilling Amid Climate
Talks
(A story titled "Senate Panel Debates Offshore Drilling Amid Climate Talks"
published at 12:19 p.m. ET and updated at 12:54 p.m. misstated in the second
paragraph the name of the Senate committee in which the hearing took place. The
correct version follows.)
By Siobhan Hughes
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A U.S. Senate panel on Thursday battled over whether
the country could expand oil and gas drilling in coastal waters without damaging
the environment, spotlighting one of the big fights over climate legislation.
The debate in the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee comes as
Senate lawmakers are negotiating over legislation to cut greenhouse-gas
emissions by more than 80% by 2050. A vote in the panel earlier this year
suggested any deal must include expanded oil and gas drilling--even though the
environmental wing of the Obama administration's base and some Democratic
Senators are opposed.
"There's a need for balance," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the top
Republican on the panel. She said last month in an interview on C-Span that she
would be "open-minded" about supporting climate legislation as long as it was
tied to more oil and gas development and more support for nuclear energy. She
questioned whether the Obama administration's approach on coastal drilling--it
has delayed acting on five-year drilling plan--reflected her concerns.
Environmentalists are concerned about more drilling in coastal waters because
the "risks are poorly understood," said Jeffrey Short, a director for Oceana, a
marine conservation group. He said that when damage occurs, determining the
cause is almost impossible because no one documented "what was there to begin
with."
Democrats such as Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), whose state lies along the
Atlantic Ocean, said lawmakers need to account for water-related tourism and
fishing. "We don't think it's an unfettered concern or an unreasonable concern,"
he said.
Oil companies say that their activities have become safer and less intrusive
and that they are prepared in the case of spills.
"The oil and gas industry can develop offshore resources with a footprint
smaller than ever before," Marvin Odum, the president of Royal Dutch Shell's (
RDSA) U.S. operations, said in prepared testimony. He cited a deepwater project
in the Gulf of Mexico called Peridido that is to begin producing in the next few
months, which Shell touts as the world's deepest drilling and production
facility. Among the drilling techniques to be used is a type that allows more
wells to be accessed from a smaller surface area on the sea floor.
-By Siobhan Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6654; Siobhan.Hughes@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-19-091528ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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