House passes first of three bills to speed offshore oil, gas drilling

WASHINGTON -- The Republican-controlled House passed the first of three bills Thursday aimed at speeding up offshore oil and gas drilling a year after the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

In a 266-149 vote that included 33 Democrats in its majority, the House approved a bill that would force the federal government to conduct three lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one off the Virginia coast within a year, or by June 2012. Lease sales are the first step in a multiyear process that can culminate in drilling.

Nevada's three U.S. House members split along party lines on the bill, with Republicans Dean Heller and Joe Heck voting for it and Democrat Shelley Berkley voting against it.

The vote came days before Heller is scheduled to leave the House for his appointment to the U.S. Senate. Berkley also is a candidate for Senate.

"By allowing our nation to develop our own natural resources we can create jobs, lower fuel prices and increase our country's energy security," Heller said in a statement.

"Increasing domestic energy production is the way we lower gas prices," Heck said. "My vote will increase domestic energy production by executing oil and natural gas lease sales previously canceled by President Obama."

But Berkley challenged whether the strategy would bring down prices, said a spokesman who noted Berkley voted for a substitute that would have required all oil and gas from the leases be sold in the United States and not exported.

"Where is the proof that these leases are going to mean a family in Las Vegas can go to the pump and fill up and pay less?" Berkley communications director David Cherry asked.

The Obama administration had postponed the sales after the massive Gulf Coast oil spill, saying it needed time to conduct more thorough environmental reviews, to account for the blowout's effects on the Gulf Coast ecosystem and to incorporate lessons learned from the disaster.

A major federal investigation into what caused the accident has yet to be released.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., the House Natural Resources Chairman and the bills' sponsor, said Thursday the legislation would reverse actions by the Obama administration that have blocked or hindered drilling at a time of rising gasoline prices.

"The pain being felt today has been exacerbated by the actions of the Obama administration," Hastings said. He said opening up more areas to drilling would send a signal to the world market that the United States is serious about reducing its dependence on foreign oil and lower pump prices.

Hastings' two other measures -- which would speed up decision-making on drilling permits and mandate that the government sell offshore leases where the greatest oil deposits are -- are expected to be voted on next week.

None of the three measures is likely to pass the Senate, where Democratic leaders are more focused on ending tax breaks received by profitable oil companies.

Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault contributed to this report.