A state bill urging Congress to consider offshore drilling in North Carolina has been sent to committee.
The House resolution had been sponsored by Republican leader Paul Stam and Reps. Bill McGee and Dale Folwell of Forsyth County and Carolyn Justice of New Hanover County. It had 41 cosponsors, all Republicans, including state Treasurer candidate Bill Daughtridge.
The bill was mostly symbolic and would not have allowed drilling in North Carolina.
After a series of clauses saying that offshore drilling would reduce gas prices and "promote economic growth and prosperity," the bill calls for the Congressional delegation to support a bill that would end the moratorium on drilling.
The bill had its first reading today, but Speaker Joe Hackney sent it to the Rules Committee.
The move gives Hackney the latitude to revive the bill at any time or let it die in committee before the session ends.
Clarification: An earlier version of this post misused the word "tabled." Hackney's spokesman Bill Holmes says the bill has just been sent to committee and may yet be heard on the House floor.
"To say it's been tabled at this point is premature," he said.
But he would not say that the bill will definitely make it out of committee and be voted on by House members as a whole.
Blog RSS feed
Re: Offshore drilling bill sent to committee
Lies? Let me ask some basic question. Are you aware that over 433 trillion cubic feet of natural gas sits off our coast off limits. How about the 38 billion barrels of oil off limits and roughly 1 trillion barrels of shell oil banned? I am not sure what you aversion is to oil but it's a nessecity.
I hear the complaint that it's ten years by some estimates. Will someone then tell me how far away new alternatives are that will get us off oil is? No one is saying we should ONLY drill for oil. We want a long term solution that includes ALL ASPECTS like oil and new alternatives. Sitting here and starving ourselves while the food is in plain site is absurd.
My job puts me in quite a few industrial and small buisnesses and I am seeing a real impact on these buisnesses that are including layoffs. You better open your eyes to what is happening and how Congress is virtually breaking this economy by starving it of it's natural resources.