US Senate backs opening protected US coastline to oil, gas drilling

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Senate approved legislation that would make 8.3 million acres



(3.4 million hectares) of Gulf of Mexico coastline available for oil and natural gas drilling.

The bill, which passed by a vote of 71 to 25, would end a quarter-century ban against tapping the coastal waters for energy, and comes as Americans face ever-spiraling prices at the gas pump and to heat and cool their homes.



Proponents said the bill allows the United States to tap rich domestic supplies of energy, at a time of increasing instability in other oil-producing parts of the world.



"Now more than ever, America needs American energy," Senate majority leader Bill Frist said Tuesday just before the vote.



The bill's boosters say that if signed into law, the bill would make available enough natural gas to heat and cool about six million homes for 15 years.



The Gulf of Mexico acreage has been protected by a drilling moratorium for the last 25 years, which Congress has renewed annually, to protect the sensitive coastal environment.



Environmental groups have raised concerns about lifting the long-standing drilling prohibition, saying doing so only feeds the insatiable US demand for fossil fuel, while calling for the development of alternative energy sources.



The bill now goes to a conference committee to reconcile House of Representatives and Senate versions, but substantial differences between the two versions may mean trouble in creating a single piece of legislation that can be submitted for US

President George W. Bush's signature.