A radio ad praising U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole mentions the Gas Price Reduction Act.
Introduced on June 27, the bill would lift a moratorium on drilling for oil and natural gas along most of the United States coastline except the eastern Gulf of Mexico, oil shale drilling on federal lands in three Western states, better regulation on oil futures trading and loans for battery makers.
The bill includes several planks of Republican presidential nominee John McCain's energy plan, dubbed The Lexington Project, which calls for drilling offshore but not in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.
The legislation was sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and cosponsored by 43 Republican senators, including Dole and Sen. Richard Burr.
In a press release announcing the bill, Dole noted that it would leave the decision on drilling up to the state, saying she would support it in North Carolina if it is "safe, clean and not visible from the land."
"The bill I am supporting would allow North Carolina and other coastal states to decide whether to open areas at least 50 miles off their shorelines to exploration and in turn receive a significant portion of the revenues," she said.
A 2007 report from the Energy Information Administration noted that offshore drilling would not increase supply before 2017, but drilling supporters argue that the potential increase in future supply would have an effect on the market now.
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Re: What's the Gas Price Reduction Act?
How do drilling supporters explain how a potential increase in future supplies would affect current prices? Producers are already at capacity. Without an increase in CURRENT supplies, there's no mechanism by which current prices would fall.
RTB, it would be a great story if you wrote about how stupid these people are. Citizens should know if their elected officials are completely ignorant of the policies they are voting on.