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Home > Window on Washington > Archives > 2008 > September > 17 > Entry
Meeting keeps McCaul from energy vote
The U.S. House approved legislation late Tuesday to expand offshore oil drilling, but Republicans said the plan did too little to increase domestic oil supplies.
The legislation would open waters 50 miles off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts to oil and natural gas development — if the adjacent states agree to go along. The bill, which Democrats largely supported and Republicans largely opposed, now moves to the Senate, where changes are expected.
The House defeated an effort by Republicans to replace the energy measure with an alternative bill sponsored by Reps. John Peterson, R-Penn., and Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, that would have allowed more drilling than the plan approved by the House.
The Peterson-Abercrombie plan “does do all of the above,” Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, citing provisions that allow more drilling while promoting nuclear energy, renewable-energy incentives and so-called clean coal technology.
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, has for months called for an “all-of-the-above” approach, and at several points during the congressional recess in August he criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not allowing an up-or-down vote on such a plan. At one point he collected gas receipts from constituents and delivered them to Pelosi’s office.
But when the House voted on whether to consider the Peterson-Abercrombie measure, McCaul missed the vote.
McCaul just missed the vote because he was returning from a meeting with representatives of the Texas Automobile Dealers Association, McCaul spokesman Mike Rosen said.
“He fully intended to vote in favor,” Rosen said.
Members of Congress often leave the House floor for meetings between votes, and McCaul’s vote alone would not have changed the fate of the Peterson-Abercrombie plan.
McCaul voted against the Democrat-backed proposal that eventually passed. Also voting against it were Reps. John Carter, R-Round Rock, and Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio.
Republicans criticized the Democratic plan because it would not share royalties from energy production with the adjacent states.
“Democrats know that states will have no incentive to opt-in if they don’t get to participate in the revenues,” McCaul said. “Democrats are cynically attempting to convince Americans they now support new exploration.”
The Democratic bill would roll back nearly $18 billion in tax breaks over 10 years for the five largest oil companies, using that revenue for tax incentives to help commercialize alternative energy such as solar, wind and biomass, and programs that foster energy efficiency.
The bill also would require the president to make available oil from the government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and it would require utilities nationwide to generate 15 percent of their electricity from solar, wind or other alternative energy sources.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, supported the bill and said it contains several renewable-energy provisions that he supported, including consumer tax credits for plug-in hybrid cars.
“It represents a comprehensive, bipartisan response to our energy needs, including opening for drilling over 300 million new acres immediately and another 85 million acres upon state approval,” Doggett said. “It represents meaningful action, not more election-year gimmickry and much more than the Republicans accomplished during their dozen years of House control.”
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