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Senate GOP rips Dem oil-spill and energy bill
Top Senate Republicans came out swinging Wednesday against Democratic
energy and oil-spill response legislation that Majority Leader
Harry Reid (D-Nev.) unveiled late Tuesday night.
At a press
conference in the Capitol, senior Republicans attacked several specific
provisions while calling the overall bill a hastily crafted product that
Democrats want to speed through the Senate.
“This is a serious
subject and it deserves consideration by the United States Senate on
behalf of the American people,” said Senate Republican Conference
Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who alleged that Democrats don’t
plan to allow GOP amendments to be voted on.
“We
are ready for a serious debate, but it appears the Majority Leader is
not,” he added, appearing with about a half-dozen other Republicans.
Reid hopes to move the bill through the Senate before the August recess
that begins at the end of next week.
“It should be an affront to
those who are serious about enacting good policy,” said Sen. Lisa
Murkowski (Alaska), the top Republican on the Energy and Natural
Resources Committee.
Republicans are circulating an alternative bill that would allow the government to establish the limit on specific facilities based on factors like water depth and a company’s safety record.
The GOP plan would also end the Obama administration’s six-month ban on deepwater drilling for rigs that meet new inspection and safety requirements.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) took aim at a provision in Reid’s bill that would require natural gas companies to disclose the chemicals used in an onshore drilling method called hydraulic fracturing.
The process has led to a natural-gas boom in many states but has prompted fears of drinking-water contamination — fears the industry, and Inhofe, call overblown.
The disclosure provision stops short of earlier Democratic bills that would bring new EPA regulation of the practice under the Safe Drinking Water Act. But Inhofe nonetheless called it an attempt to kill the technique dubbed “fracking.”
“This is something that was slipped in at the last minute. I had no idea until 10 o’clock last night that they were going to try and do away with hydraulic fracturing,” said Inhofe, the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee. “You do away with hydraulic fracturing and you do away with natural gas.”
Asked why disclosing the chemicals used would bring a halt to drilling, he replied, “In the understanding of those individuals who are out there using this practice, which is everyone who is in the shale business, that this would shut them down.” He also expressed concern that the provision could be broadened in House-Senate talks.
