December 3, 2021 — A slew of climate provisions in Democrats’ roughly $2 trillion social spending bill face an uncertain future in the Senate. But there’s one big exception: limits on offshore oil and gas drilling.
Democrats, aides and environmentalists feel confident that the prevention of oil and gas drilling in most U.S. waters will survive scrutiny in the Senate, including from key centrist Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).
Under the version of the Build Back Better Act that passed the House last month, new offshore drilling would be permanently prohibited in three major regions: the Atlantic, the Pacific and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Other policies aimed at limiting oil and gas development have inspired fierce partisan divides on Capitol Hill. But coastal lawmakers of both parties have rallied around preventing drilling off their coastlines. For instance, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) earlier this year introduced the “American Shores Protection Act,” which would codify a temporary moratorium on drilling off the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.