Abstract
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY OFFICIALS are hailing House passage of legislation that would lift a quarter-century federal ban on most offshore drilling for oil and natural gas. The bill (H.R. 4761), which passed on a vote of 232 to 187 on June 29, would open waters off the East and West Coasts and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, where trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and billions of barrels of oil have been off-limits since 1981. Jack N. Gerard, president of the American Chemistry Council, described the vote as one of the most important of the past two decades. Affordable energy is inextricably linked to America's economy, jobs, competitiveness, and security, he remarks. Now it's up to the Senate to act to put America on a path toward a stronger, more secure future. Robert Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, notes that the chemical industry has been particularly hard-hit as plants and ...
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