Senate Rejection of Drilling Bill Signals Time for Real Solutions

WASHINGTON (May 18, 2011) – After the Senate rejected a bill today that would have expanded offshore drilling while making the system that oversees drilling even less safe than before the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a former member of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, made the following statement:

“While the Senate today turned back Republican leadership’s latest misguided attempt to expand drilling and weaken safety and environmental oversight, this fight is far from over.

“Big Oil and its backers in Congress have clearly signaled their intent to continue to try and manipulate and misconstrue Americans’ angst over high gas prices into a way for them to drill here, drill there, drill everywhere – and get billions in tax breaks to do it.

“More drilling won’t make a noticeable difference in gas prices. All it means is more money for Big Oil. We should all hope the Senate will finally dispense with these attempts to fulfill Big Oil’s wish list and instead get down the business of making drilling safer and finding real solutions for our energy problems.”

For Beinecke’s blog on the issue, please see: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/fbeinecke/even_as_american_families_stru.html

For details on the Senate bill and other House-passed drilling bills, please see NRDC Senior Oceans Advocate Regan Nelson’s blog: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/rnelson/senate_poised_to_take_up_drill.html