Senators OK more coastal drilling

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Tuesday to open 8.3 million acres of federal waters in the central Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling — setting up a confrontation with the House, which wants even more drilling in waters now off-limits.

Supporters of the Senate measure said it would be a major step toward producing more domestic energy and forcing down natural- gas prices, which have soared in recent years.

The Senate approved the measure by a vote of 71-25. Both of Washington state's senators, Democrats Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, voted against it.

The bill now must be reconciled with much broader drilling legislation passed by the House in June. Those negotiations are likely to begin in September.

The House bill would allow energy companies access to waters far beyond the central Gulf and lift the 25-year-old drilling moratorium on Outer Continental Shelf waters on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, while allowing states to decide whether to continue the drilling bans.

Senate Democrats and GOP moderates say such a broad bill would threaten areas that have long opposed energy developing, from New England to California and the Pacific Northwest. Senate leaders say it would spark a filibuster and probably lead to no offshore- drilling legislation emerging from Congress this year.

The 8.3 million acres affected by the Senate measure is believed to contain 1.2 billion barrels of oil and nearly 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to heat 6 million homes for 15 years.