Senior House Dem to seek new coastal drilling bans

A top member of the House Appropriations Committee is plotting to re-impose oil-and-gas drilling bans off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts if Democrats retain control of the House.

Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) — who heads the subcommittee that crafts Interior Department spending bills — tells the Washington Post that he wants to protect the mid-Atlantic and sees a “50-50 chance of protecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.”

The 2012-2017 offshore leasing plan that the White House rolled out in March — before the BP oil spill — calls for leasing off the coasts of mid-Atlantic and Southeastern states. It does not contemplate allowing West Coast drilling even though the region is no longer under a formal moratorium.

East and West Coast leasing bans imposed for decades through spending bills lapsed in 2008 during an election season marked by record energy prices. But the BP spill is prompting calls for renewed bans. Moran also said he will seek limits on drilling off Alaska’s shores, where leasing is allowed in many areas, according to the Post.

The Interior Department imposed a temporary freeze on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP spill began, but that is expected to be lifted or relaxed soon. “The Gulf is going to go back to drilling. That's just the nature of the Gulf,” Moran said.