House rejects three Dem amendments to offshore drilling bill

The House Wednesday evening rejected three Democratic amendments to a bill that sets oil and gas production goals for the U.S. and requires increased offshore drilling as a way of getting there.

In successive votes that ended at about 6:30 p.m., the House rejected an amendment from Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) that would have made sure that offshore drilling does not conflict with naval military operations. Republicans said this language is redundant, and the amendment was defeated in a 193-228 vote.

The House also rejected an amendment from Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) that would have only given out new drilling permits to oil companies if they renegotiate their agreements that now allow them to drill on public land without paying royalties to the U.S. government. The House rejected this amendment in a 189-238 vote.

Finally, the House rejected an amendment from Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.) that would have required the Department of the Interior to disclose bonuses handed out by companies that receive drilling leases. This was voted down 186-240.

The House on Thursday is expected to vote on four other Democratic amendments on Thursday. These would require oil companies to have a worst-case scenario in place to stave off environmental disasters (Tsongas, D-Mass.), make permanent the ban on drilling in the eastern region of the Gulf of Mexico (Brown, D-Fla.), prohibit drilling off the coast of California (Thompson, D-Calif.), and require Washington state's governor and legislature to approve drilling off Washington's shore (Inslee, D-Wash.).

All of these are expected to fail before the House approves the bill, H.R. 1231, on Thursday.