The White House lost in its attempt at implementation of an extension of the oil drilling review period. The period will remain at 30 days, not the favored 90 days of this administration.
Landrieu and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) had led the opposition to extending the federal review period to 90 days, calling it an unnecessary delay to future projects delayed since this summer's Gulf of Mexico spill.
All of the country is indebted to these two women for their unrelenting effort. This administration continues in its attempts at killing offshore drilling. Not only is this a job killing act, it is no way to run an energy policy.
The continuing resolution passed by the Senate to keep the government chugging along into 2011 was the salvation of the drilling industry. The defeated pork-laden omnibus bill included the permit review period extension.
The fight over the 90-day language was essentially a continuation of one that has been going on for months between oil-state lawmakers and administration officials over the sluggish pace of permits that are being processed since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig and subsequent unprecedented gulf oil spill.
The administration placed a six-month ban on deepwater drilling permits in the wake of the gulf spill in order to start developing new offshore oversight and safety regulations, which Interior continues to roll out. Drilling backers say that a de facto permitting ban remains on both deepwater and shallow water drilling permits.
The Senate spending plan does include an additional $23 million to the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement for oil rig inspections in the gulf.
The ideology of the far left is not to be tolerated in matters of energy policy. All methods of energy acquisition must be pursued and implemented.
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