E2-Wire

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the oil spill should accelerate efforts to move energy legislation that boosts alternative sources.

Oil companies, under greater congressional scrutiny after the massive Gulf oil spill, are forming two groups of experts to examine offshore drilling operations.

“This tragic incident requires that we re-double our commitment to continually improve safety and response practices,” said Jack Gerard, the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, in a statement.

The tasks forces will look at short-term and long-term issues related to offshore equipment and offshore operating practices, API said in a news release.

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GOP Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (Kan.) said Senate Republicans have never endorsed the phrase.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said he has urged Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to remove provisions from climate and energy legislation that would encourage more offshore drilling. 

Kerry did not commit to changing the bill, Nelson told reporters today. But the legislation “is not going anywhere” if it opens up new areas off the coasts to drilling in light of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatening fragile Gulf coast ecosystems, Nelson said. He also issued a warning to the administration that its proposal to expand drilling off of Alaska and Mid-Atlantic and southeastern states, and new areas in the Gulf of Mexico, faced a steep hill in Congress.

Nelson said the administration’s plan to expand drilling would be “dead on arrival” if introduced as legislation in Congress.

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The Senate’s number two Republican said the Gulf of Mexico oil spill lends credibility to proposals to drill in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

“You are not in 5,000 feet of water. You have a got a pipeline nearby. You have experience drilling in that area just a few miles away,” Kyl told reporters Tuesday.

However, opening ANWR hasn’t been seriously play since Republicans lost control of Congress in 2006. 

Protecting the region is a signature goal of environmental groups and many Democrats – including Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), two of the chief architects of Senate climate and energy plans.

Senate minority whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) predicted Tuesday that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill would put broad energy and climate legislation on hold while the accident is investigated.

The draft package that Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have been crafting would limit carbon emissions while promoting expanded nuclear power development and wider offshore drilling.

“At least temporarily, this [the spill] has probably knocked one of the legs of the stool off to the side,” Kyl said, referring to the drilling provisions.

“So my guess is that nothing proceeds at the moment until we find out what caused it, how it can be prevented in the future, and therefore how safe it is to continue exploring this deep offshore,” he said.

The draft Senate climate and energy package has not been unveiled publicly. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he wants to bring energy and climate legislation to the floor this year.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is defending inclusion of offshore drilling provisions in the climate and energy measure he is crafting, but a senior Democrat acknowledged that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has highlighted differences among lawmakers.

Lieberman told reporters Tuesday that he hoped the spill would not harm the bill’s chances of passage.

“The more we can get oil and gas within the United States as we transition, I hope, to a total alternative clean energy economy, the better we are,” Lieberman said.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hear from BP next week about the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill that threatens to devastate coastlines.

It will likely be the first time that Capitol Hill lawmakers are able to publicly grill the oil giant about the ongoing spill.

The May 11 hearing will include an as-yet-unnamed BP official and other witnesses who are technical experts, said Bill Wicker, a spokesman for committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.).

Pelosi told union members and environmentalists the Senate is “very close” to passing an energy and climate change bill.

* BP is moving along several fronts to try and stop the Gulf of Mexico spill

The ongoing spill has altered the political landscape in Washington, as we noted here, here and here, for instance.

Down in the Gulf, the New York Times reports on BP’s efforts to deploy a containment dome, and other plans to stop the oil gushing from the damaged deepwater well.

“The company was also planning to install a shutoff valve at the site of one of the leaks on Monday, but the seas were too rough, delaying that effort. Heavy winds damaged miles of floating booms laid out in coastal waters to protect the shoreline from the spreading oil slick, which appeared to be drifting toward the Alabama and Florida coasts and the Chandeleur Islands off Louisiana’s southern tip,” the Times reports.