Liberals fret over cuts to oil legislation as it moves to the floor

A leading liberal House Democrat is fuming over what he calls a House leadership decision to pare back oil-and-gas legislation that the Natural Resources Committee approved before the bill arrives on the House floor.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said major provisions dealing with onshore energy development would not be part of the legislation — which requires new safeguards for offshore oil-and-gas drilling — when it hits the floor next week.

“It’s very disappointing,” Grijalva said in an interview Wednesday. “I think the committee did a really good job in putting together something comprehensive for both onshore and offshore.” Grijalva chairs the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee. He’s also co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

The overall bill, which the Natural Resources Committee approved along largely party lines July 15, is among the BP oil spill response measures that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) plans to bring up next week.

It includes a host of provisions on offshore energy planning and oversight, such as beefed up drilling rig inspections, more detailed environmental reviews of oil industry exploration plans, and new rig safety requirements, among many others.

But Grijalva said key sections that toughen oversight of land-based energy development have been jettisoned, such as an end to exemptions from federal environmental review for some oil-and-gas activities.

“I just for the life of me can’t understand why we can’t take this to the floor,” said Grijalva, who added that cutting the measures will not make the bill any more attractive to Republicans.

A House Democratic leadership aide said the floor package is not yet final, but suggested that onshore provisions are indeed on the chopping block.

“Leadership strongly wanted a package to respond specifically to the oil spill and not just any provisions that were ready to go,” the aide said.

A spokesman for Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), the bill’s sponsor, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

But Grijalva wonders why the committee marked up the broader measure at all. If leadership just wanted an offshore plan, “That should have been the instructions coming down so we wouldn’t have set our expectations to the legislation that we produced,” he said.

Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), another liberal member of the Natural Resources Committee, said the bill should remain wide-ranging.

“There is always a discussion going about how can we get this passed on the floor, and I think that is where it is,” she said Wednesday.

“I am very concerned that we keep it as strong, as broad as we can ... as an appropriate statement of a policy, getting toward an ocean policy as well as the entire agenda for the Resources Committee,” Capps added.

The bill is expected on the floor along with separate legislation the Energy and Commerce Committee approved last week that requires several specific offshore drilling rig safeguards, such as redundant systems on blowout preventers and tougher well design standards.

The floor package is also expected to include oil spill response legislation approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that removes the current $75 million liability cap on oil companies for economic damages from offshore spills, a leadership aide said.