July 17, 2008 – 1:54 p.m.
The House was to vote Thursday for a second time on a bill to require energy companies to explore their existing oil and gas leases or lose them.
The “use-it-or-lose-it” bill is the Democratic response to a drumbeat of Republican calls for legislation to open up new offshore areas to oil and gas drilling.
The bill is a retread of a measure Democrats rushed to the floor ahead of the July 4 recess, under an expedited procedure requiring a two-thirds vote. That bill fell 56 votes short of passage June 26, in part because 19 Democrats, most from oil-producing states, voted with Republicans to defeat the measure.
The latest version is also being brought up under the expedited procedure that requires a two-thirds vote for passage. And it could well meet the same fate as the earlier version.
Democratic leaders say they have rewritten the language to pick up support from oil-state Democrats. They also have bundled the measure with provisions designed to expedite oil and gas production in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, a 20-million-acre territory already open to oil and gas exploration, speed construction of an oil and gas pipeline from Alaska, and bar export of Alaskan oil.
That was aimed at winning over some GOP votes or at least putting Republicans in the awkward spot of voting against a bill that would boost domestic oil and gas production.
Republican Leader
The White House issued a veto threat against the Democrats’ bill, saying, “With gasoline prices at historic highs, it is unimaginable that Congress is considering legislation that would, among other things, reduce domestic oil supply by chilling investment and placing new restrictions on how exploration can go forward.”
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