Graham: Senate should go further on drilling, eye Pacific Coast development

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) – a key architect of upcoming Senate energy legislation – said Wednesday that lawmakers should widen President Obama’s newly announced expansion of offshore oil-and-gas drilling.

Graham called the White House plan a “good first step” but added, “there is more that must be done to make this proposal meaningful and the game-changer we all want it to become.”

“Among the areas we still need to address – encouraging states to allow exploration by sharing a portion of the revenue raised from oil and gas drilling, opening even more areas of the Eastern Gulf to exploration, the inclusion of viable drilling sites in the Atlantic and Pacific, and expanding the list of areas we inventory for possible reservoirs of oil and gas,” Graham said.

Graham plans to unveil broad climate change and energy legislation later this month with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

The White House plans includes drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, eventual development off the coast of mid-Atlantic and southeastern states, and Arctic oil exploration off the northern coast of Alaska (although it cancels several upcoming lease sales there to allow further study). Much of the eastern Gulf remains off-limits under a 2006 law, so a major expansion of development would require congressional action.

The White House plan does not include oil-and-gas development off the Pacific Coast, and President Obama has also placed Alaska’s sensitive Bristol Bay region off-limits.

(Click here and here to see Interior Department maps that explain the Obama administration plan.)