Brian Beutler (TPM):You might think that an oil spill of historic proportions that's just 50 miles from U.S. shores might create a groundswell of support in Congress for legislation designed to reduce the country's reliance on fossil fuels. But you'd be wrong.
In the peculiar world of the United States Senate, the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe has actually intensified existing divisions, drawing offshore drilling foes into growing conflict with oil patch Democrats and industry friendly members, who continue to support exploration, and incentives, for new drilling.
With oil still gushing from the well at a calamitous pace, a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, furious Senators threatened Tuesday to block any climate and energy bill that would lead to more drilling off the U.S. coast.
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Fire In The Gulf: New Pictures Of The Deepwater Horizon]
"If I have to do a filibuster...I will do so," Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) told reporters Tuesday.
And so he may.
Nelson is perhaps the most outspoken of a group of anti-drilling Democrats, that also includes New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez. They were none-too-pleased when President Obama greenlighted oil exploration--and, potentially, full scale drilling--along vast swaths of the Outer Continental Shelf in order to shore up support from pro-drilling Democrats. But the BP spill drove them into full revolt.
That wouldn't be a problem at all if other senators, and industry players, viewed the Gulf catastrophe as oil's Waterloo. But if anything, the opposite has happened. The bill's authors see offshore drilling as one of the keys to bringing oil-patch Democrats and Republicans into the fold on climate and energy legislation--and they are unwilling to allow the industry coalition they put together to be fractured by the backlash. At the same time pro-drilling senators have seemingly doubled down.
Howie P.S.: Go to the link. The comments are instructive
(not just mine).
Brian Beutler (TPM):
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