Travis Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, said the banking and housing crisis wasn’t a structural problem, but stems from a lack of will on the part of regulators to use the oversight powers that they already possess.
Energy will remain a top focus of Congress this week as well.
House and Senate Democrats have softened their outright opposition to additional offshore drilling. An energy bill crafted by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would allow rigs 50 miles offshore if the states OK drilling there. Under the plan, the drilling ban in place for two decades would be automatically lifted beyond 100 miles.
There’s also growing support for the Senate’s bipartisan proposal. It would lift the ban off the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, and provide more access to the eastern Gulf of Mexico than the Speaker’s plan would. At last count, 20 senators had signed up to support the package.
Of the two, environmental groups favor the House approach in part because the Gang of 20’s proposal provides support for turning coal to transportation fuels and encouraging development of oil shale in the West. Both processes release more greenhouse gases than even traditional oil development does.
The American Petroleum Institute (API), which represents the large integrated oil companies like Exxon Mobil and BP, isn’t in much of a mood to support either.
The House bill denies states a share of royalties from oil and gas companies, thereby removing “an important incentive for states to open up to drilling,” a letter sent on Friday states.
API also has “growing concern” of “unintended consequences” of the Senate Gang of 20 proposal. Some of the consequences are intended, though, like the collection of billions of dollars in tax receipts from the oil industry. That could fill federal coffers, however, at the expense of domestic development, the industry argues.
The fact that oil prices slipped below $100 a barrel on Monday may ease some of the political expediency of expanding access to drilling. With Hurricane Ike bearing down on the Gulf Coast last Friday, several energy experts urged a comprehensive approach that includes more drilling and support for renewable energy at an energy summit sponsored by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
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