Climate bill could be harmed by Gulf spill

WASHINGTON - A historic environmental protection bill is in danger after a massive oil spill put a new focus on the perils of offshore drilling, a feature supposed to win wider support for the legislation.

The bill, supported by President Barack Obama, calls for new offshore drilling - a concession by environmentalists. But with the tragedy off the Gulf Coast growing daily, even conservationists who have waited a decade for the legislation are now saying it will fail if offshore drilling remains in the bill.

"When you're trying to resurrect a climate bill that's facedown in the mud and you want to bring it back to life and get it breathing again, I don't think you can have offshore drilling against the backdrop of what's transpiring in the Louisiana wetlands," said Richard Charter, energy adviser to Defenders of Wildlife. "I think it's flatlined."

Some Democrats, including two of New Jersey's congressmen and both of its senators, threatened Friday to pull their support if offshore drilling is included in the bill designed to curb emissions of pollution-causing gases blamed for global warming.

Introduction of the legislation was postponed last week for an unrelated reason. The bill aims to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and it also would expand domestic production of oil, natural gas and nuclear power.

Obama has called for new offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean from Delaware to Central Florida, and the northern waters of Alaska. He also asked Congress to lift a drilling ban in the oil-rich eastern Gulf of Mexico, 125 miles from Florida beaches.

The images of last week's explosion and the growing, uncontrolled spill in the Gulf make the bill's road to approval much more difficult with the widespread threats to wildlife and fishing grounds along the Gulf Coast now likely to force many wavering lawmakers to reconsider whether they support expanded drilling.

"I think that's dead on arrival," U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, told CNN Friday.

But that same day South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said his support had not wavered. "The Challenger accident was heartbreaking, but we went back to space," he told The Greenville News.

A White House spokesman said Obama remains committed, at least for now, to plans to expand drilling to new areas of the outer continental shelf. But David Jenkins, a spokesman for Republicans for Environmental Protection, said the politics of offshore drilling are "changing by the minute" as the spreading slick of oil threatens coastal states that traditionally support drilling.

"If this plays out, how many politicians will be jumping up and saying they won't vote for this because it doesn't include offshore drilling?" Jenkins said.

While the environmental community never embraced drilling, some muted or at least downplayed their opposition to Obama's proposal for the sake of the larger climate bill, said Steve Cochran, with the Environmental Defense Fund.