Legislation aimed at spurring domestic drilling on already-leased lands was defeated in the House of Representatives on Thursday.
Democrats proposed the initiative in response to Republican calls for increased offshore oil and natural gas drilling ? a crude endeavor according to key congressional Democrats.
The initiative, known as the "use-it-or-lose-it" bill, would have required oil companies to prove they are working toward drilling on lands they already lease or else relinquish it to the government, according to House documents.
Walter Rosenbaum, interim director of UF's Graham Center for Public Service, said the bill's failure is not necessarily an endorsement of offshore drilling.
Rosenbaum said although opinion polls would suggest the public favors offshore drilling, neither the Senate nor the House can reach a majority vote on allowing it.
"Right now, it's politically difficult to be a political figure in the House or Senate and not appear to want to ease price of gas at the pump," he said. "If they can avoid taking a position opposed to drilling, they won't be perceived as hostile to the consumer."
The defeated bill, alongside recent efforts in the House, called into question the 68 million acres of federally leased land that are not being drilled, according to a June report by the House's Committee on Natural Resources.
Those 68 million acres could produce 4.8 million barrels of oil daily, nearly doubling current U.S. production, according to the report.
The report states that oil companies are holding 10,000 drilling permits for land that is not being developed.
Only about 20 percent of offshore land is prohibited to drilling, according to the report.
Rosenbaum said the amount of oil available in prohibited areas is "a pittance, a tiny increment" of the amount the U.S. requires.
Sen. Bill Nelson said in a July 14 news release that oil companies are not drilling on 32 million acres of the 39 million on lease from the federal government in the Gulf of Mexico.
"The industry should be sinking wells in areas already under lease, before demanding control of millions of new acres or destroying long-protected lands," Nelson said in the release.
He said the 8 million acres that were opened off the coast of Florida to oil companies in 2006 through legislation put forth by him and Sen. Mel Martinez have had no effect on gas prices.
In a June press conference, President Bush said to combat a dependence on foreign oil and rising gas prices in the U.S., which reached an average $4.11 a gallon last week, the country must expand domestic oil production, which calls for opening up more land for drilling along the Outer Continental Shelf.
The Bush administration has said that prohibited areas of the Outer Continental Shelf could produce about 18 billion barrels of oil, which would match current U.S. domestic production for about 10 years.
According to Energy Information Administration statistics for 2008, the U.S. is projected to have domestically produced an average of 5.14 million barrels of petroleum a day while consuming a daily average of 20.29 million barrels.
Bush and his proponents have said new technologies allow for oil exploration that is unseen, protects coral reefs and marine habitats and prevents oil spills.
"With these advances and a dramatic increase in oil prices, congressional restrictions on [Outer Continental Shelf] exploration have become outdated and counterproductive," Bush said at the conference.
Rob Brinkman, chair of the Suwannee-St. Johns Group of the Sierra Club, Florida Chapter, said despite the technological advances, offshore drilling is still a risky business.
"Accidents happen. Hurricanes happen," Brinkman said. "We can talk about our technology all we want, but there's still humans involved, and we're still fallible."
He said Hurricane Katrina caused more than 7 million gallons of oil to spill from various sources.
That amount is less than four million gallons below the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.
Brinkman also said drilling for more oil is "the exact opposite of what we need to be doing."
Although high oil prices make offshore drilling more economically justifiable, oil is a dwindling resource, and the federal government needs to focus on alternative energy sources and oil conservation, he said.
