House passes energy bill

House Democrats easily passed an energy bill that was crafted as a response to a shift in public opinion on the divisive issue of offshore drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf. 

After surviving an attempt from Republicans to derail the measure by offering a bipartisan bill crafted by Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and John Peterson (R-Pa.) as their motion to recommit, the legislation passed 236 to 189.

{mosads}The GOP motion pitted cosponsor against cosponsor as Abercrombie and Peterson took to the floor to urge their colleagues to vote opposite directions on the bill they crafted together before the August recess.

Peterson pleaded for a different approach than the one taken by Pelosi.

“This is not a perfect bill,” he said of his legislation, “but it’s a damn good start. And it was put together without special interests or lobbyists… It was just members of Congress working together.”

But Abercrombie set the tone for the Democrats who joined him in the work alongside Peterson a group of Republicans, saying he had given his word to support the Democratic leadership’s bill and thwart any attempts to sabotage it.

Abercrombie told members to honor their commitments to vote for the bill that Democrats brought to the floor.

“Honor has me voting for the bill that’s on the floor and not for the recommittal,” he said. “I’m hoping it doesn’t succeed, I’m hoping that the other bill passes [and] we keep our word.”

The motion to recommit failed 191-226. Democratic Reps. Jason Altmire (Pa.), John Barrow (Ga.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Travis Childers (Miss.), Tim Walz (Minn.), Donald Cazayoux (La.), Jim Marshall (Ga.), Gene Taylor (Miss.), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (S.D.), Tim Holden (Pa.), Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Harry Mitchell (Ariz.), and Bill Foster (Ill.) voted with the GOP.

Ten Republicans, Reps. Gus Bilirakis (Fla.), Vern Buchanan (Fla.), Rodney Frelinghuysen (N.J.), Wayne Gilchrest (Md.), Dean Heller (Nevada), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.) Jon Porter (Nevada), Dave Reichert (Wash.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) and Chris Smith (N.J), voted against the GOP procedural motion including.

Fifteen Republicans supported the underlying measure. In addition to Buchanan, Gilchrest, Porter, Reichert, Smith and LoBiondo, Reps. Mike Castle (Del.), Robin Hayes (N.C.), Bob Inglis (S.C.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Joe Knollenberg (Mich.), Ray LaHood (Ill.), Jim Ramstad (Minn.), and Chris Shays (N.J.) joined the Democrats.

In addition to Barrow, Cazayoux, Marshall, Taylor, Payne, Democratic Reps. Lois Capps (Calif.), Sam Farr (Calif.), Bob Filner (Calif.), Rush Holt (N.J.), Frank Pallone (N.J.), Steven Rothman (N.J.), Mike Thompson (Calif.) and Lynn Woolsey (Calif.) voted with the GOP.

The 290-page energy bill, assembled behind closed doors in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office, put nearly all House Democrats on record supporting some offshore drilling.

The bill also included language to end tax breaks for oil companies and authorized the sale of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The House bill does not include any effort to expand nuclear power.

But the most notable feature of the bill was the section that allows states to decide whether to have drilling off their coastlines. The bill would still ban it between three miles and 50 miles.

In her speech on the floor, Pelosi said the change came as a result of President Bush’s decision to lift the moratorium on drilling in the OCS, which would allow oil companies to drill three miles offshore.  Pelosi characterized the legislation as an attempt to protect the shoreline.

While putting the decision in the hands of the coastal states, it offers little or no incentive for states to allow the drilling beyond the idea that they would share in any reduction in gasoline prices and perhaps gain some industrial operations.

In the heated debate that stretched across the day from the House floor to press conferences, Democrats accused Republicans of being beholden to oil companies, while Republicans in return charged Democrats with drafting a “sham” bill that does not really open resources.

“‘Drill now, drill here, drill only’ is a slogan, not a cure,” said Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.).

Natural Resources Committee ranking member Don Young (R-Alaska) said, “You can get more energy out of this bill if you took all of the copies of the bill and put it in a bonfire.”

House Republicans protested that the drilling expansion into the OCS was too limited and did not provide states with any financial incentives to allow the drilling to occur off their shore.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) criticized Democrats for crafting the bill in secret and withholding copies until nearly 10 p.m. Monday night.

“A bill gets filed at 9:45 the night before and then it’s announced it’s going to come to the floor the next morning as the first bill up, a bill that no one has read, written in the dark of night that won’t do a damn thing about American energy,” Boehner said. “Enough is enough!”

He added, “It’s rigged.  And the bill that’s coming to the floor is nothing more than hoax on the American people and they will not buy it.”

One break in the partisanship came from Abercrombie, who said he would support giving states incentives for allowing drilling offshore and that the bill was a work in progress.

“We didn’t have enough information coming from the CBO on [the revenue sharing with states] – there are a lot of things that can be done if we can just move the bill along,” he said. “I wouldn’t vote for this bill [in its current form] if it came back as the conference report.”

Abercrombie urged Republicans to give the legislation a chance to be improved rather than striking it down.

Rather than protesting the Democratic concession on drilling, environmental groups accepted it and attacked the alternative that Republicans pushed in their floor protest through August.

“While Sierra Club members aren’t crazy about the provisions that would allow more offshore drilling, it’s much better than the plan by Republicans that is a drill-only alternative,” Athan Manuel of the Sierra Club said in a press call Tuesday.

Although the bill passed the House, it still faces challenges in the Senate. The question of cutting states in on the potential $2.6 trillion in revenue emerged as a major point of contention. Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) one of the Democrats shepherding the bill through the House, said he expects the upper chamber to cut the states in on the $2.6 trillion windfall in royalties.

“Revenue sharing is a problem. We need to pass this out of the House,” Green said. “The Senate can take care of that.”

But that could revive protests from environmental groups who oppose giving states further incentive to allow drilling.

“All the groups oppose revenue sharing,” Manuel said.

The bill would also end a congressional moratorium blocking the Department of Interior from starting a leasing program for oil shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, giving those state governments the right to decide whether to authorize a leasing agreement.

Oil shale is rock laced with organic material that turns into oil under intense heat. Advocates say there could be 1.8 trillion barrels of oil in the shale formations of the three states.

Jared Allen contributed to this report.