I Almost Forgot!
In all the excitement over the House defeating the $700,000,000,000 bailout, excuse me, rescue bill, it almost escaped my notice that the same August Body also failed to reauthorize the offshore drilling ban.
The 27 year-old ban is now dead. According to the linked story,
The ban was not a prohibition on drilling per se. Rather, it was a ban on appropriating money for the Interior Department to process of new drilling leases. With the beginning of the new fiscal year, that prohibition will end, once Congress passes a budget resolution that restores the funding. After years of opposition to increasing domestic supplies of energy, a full year of fighting House Republicans on the issue, and a summer of defending itself against a vocal Republican minority and overwhelming public support for increased oil drilling, Congressional Democrats agreed last week to allow the ban to lapse this year.
Drawing as little attention to themselves as possible.
Now the question is, will a Democrat-majority legislature actually appropriate funds so the Interior Department can process new drilling leases? Or, like the funding for the BATF to review appeals to restore firearms rights, will this be a line-item that never makes it into any appropriations bill?
Anybody taking bets?