Yesterday, George Allen tried to pull a sneaky maneuver in between bouts of excruciating boredom in the US Senate. What did that sneaky "Felix" cat do now? It's complicated, but the bottom line is that Allen is attempting to circumvent states' rights in order to ram through oil and gas drilling - vetoed by Mark Warner and amended by Tim Kaine, limiting it to exploration and study but not development - off Virginia's coast. Here's the relevant language of the amendment (SA 4748):(b) Prohibition Against Leasing.--(1) UNAVAILABLE FOR LEASING WITHOUT STATE REQUEST.--Except as otherwise provided in this section, the Secretary shall not offer for leasing for oil and gas, or natural gas, any area in the Adjacent Zone that is within 50 miles of the coastline of the State and that was withdrawn from disposition by leasing in the Atlantic OCS Region under the ``Memorandum on Withdrawal of Certain Areas of the United States Outer Continental Shelf from Leasing Disposition'', from 34 Weekly Comp. Pres. Doc. 1111, dated June 12, 1998.
(2) AREAS BETWEEN 50 AND 100 MILES FROM THE COASTLINE.--Unless the State petitions under subsection (c) by the date that is 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act for natural gas leasing or by June 30, 2009, for oil and gas leasing, the Secretary shall offer for leasing any area in the Adjacent Zone that is more than 50 miles, but less than 100 miles, from the coastline of the State that was withdrawn from disposition by leasing in the Atlantic OCS Region under the ``Memorandum on Withdrawal of Certain Areas of the United States Outer Continental Shelf from Leasing Disposition'', from 34 Weekly Comp. Pres. Doc. 1111, dated June 12, 1998.
In other words, within 50 miles the default assumption is that there will NOT be drilling, but that the state can "opt in." Outside 50 miles, the default is that there WILL be drilling unless the state takes action to "opt out" (aka, stop it). The problem is that, under George Allen's legislation, the Virginia House of Delegates would have to request that the Federal Government not drill, and since they+óGé¼Gäóve already voted for drilling, Virginia would never able to request the Federal government not drill. In other words, it's an underhanded trick to circumvent the veto power given to a governor in the Virginia constitution.Sneaky, sneaky. Yet George Felix claims it is "completely voluntary":
It would be a completely voluntary arrangement. My amendment allows deepwater exploration if that is the will of the people of Virginia. It simply gives the people an option. It gives the people a choice
Uh huh. In George Allen World, it's "voluntary" to force people to do stuff or make it really hard - but theoretically possible - for them to stop someone else from doing it to them. Wonderful. And what ever happened to "states rights," exactly? Wasn't George Allen supposed to be a big enthusiast for that concept? Basically, as far as I can tell, George Allen in his Amendment is FOR states' rights before he is AGAINST them. Beautiful.
When it is politically expedient for him to do so to get a payoff from Big Oil, he'll go to extremes of Federalistic high-handedness like this.
When it is politically expedient to appease the right-wing religious part of his base, he'll stomp all over the Jeffersonian ideal of separation of church and state.
And I'm suggesting that we name the first oil spill after Sen. Frank W. Wagner and Del. Harry R. Purkey, representatives from Virginia Beach - for sponsoring legislation to open Virginia's coastal shelf to drilling.
The Frank Wagner & Harry Purkey Virginia Oil Slick Memorial