Missouri’s Senators agree the oil companies need to increase their capacity. But they disagree on a couple of key ideas–where, and how.
Senator Bond says Congress needs to follow President Bush’s lifting of his father’s executive order on off-shore oil drilling with action of its own. He says the announcement sent a message to the marketplace that led to a drop in oil prices. He says he’ll offer an amendment to a Department of the Interior appropriations bill next week to lift the Congressional ban on leasing offshore drilling rights. He says his proposal would let states decide if they want to allow the offshore drilling.
Bond says 574-million acres off the shores of the lower 48 states contain as much as 18-billion barrels of oil, "enough to make a significant reduction in prices."
But Senator Catskill says the oil companies have 68-million acres, including some acreage along the Gulf shore, that they can drill on and they refuse to drill on it. She says the companies need to use some of their profits to drill there and to expand their refinery capacity.
McCaskill says the new energy bill needs to be about more than drilling. She says it will deal with speculation, conservation, and improved domestic production. She says she hopes Congress can pass the bill before it goes home for its August break.
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