Congress approves offshore drilling bill

Congress approves offshore drilling bill

By Chris Baltimore Sat Dec 9, 11:37 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hours before adjourning for the year, the U.S. Congress on Saturday sent President George W. Bush legislation that would open 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and natural gas drilling and redistribute billions of dollars in royalties to four Gulf states.

The drilling measure was wrapped into a broad tax and trade package that the U.S. Senate approved by a 79-9 vote, hours after the House of Representatives approved it.

Rep. Bobby Jindal, a Louisiana Republican and one of the drilling measure's main supporters, said Bush will sign the bill into law.

The offshore legislation ends a 25-year ban on drilling in deep waters about 125 miles south of Florida's Panhandle, but extends a moratorium on drilling in other Florida waters until 2022.........


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061209/pl_nm/congress_offshore_drilling_dc

Just as hurricanes get so violent that drilling rigs have to be abandoned.

a stupid bill that won't even impact our oil dependency for years.



A much better bill would have been one that actually gave alternative energy companies some subsidizing!