U.S Senate votes down offshore drilling bill

May 18, 2011 | Government & Regulations

United_States_Capitol

A Republican effort to hasten and expand offshore drilling in the U.S. was blocked Wednesday in the Senate, a day after a Democratic bill to end tax subsidies for oil majors was voted down in the same chamber.

The Republican bill was aimed at speeding up the process of obtain drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico and along the East Coast. Supporters said the bill was an effort to reduce high gasoline prices through increasing domestic supply. Critics said the bill ignored lessons learned from the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident.

The Republican-led U.S. House of Representative passed a similar bill several weeks ago.

The vote came a day after the Democratic-led Senate voted down a measure to end tax subsidies for oil companies totalling $21 billion over 10 years.