Webb splits with Obama over drilling

By pushing a bill that distances himself from the Democratic Party and its presidential candidate on offshore drilling, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia is picking a curious time to exercise his well-known independence.

Webb wants his home state to have the right to explore for energy off Virginia’s coast. His staff insists his proposal pertains only to natural gas, and not oil, and that it is completely in line with the state’s other two leading Democrats — Gov. Tim Kaine and former Gov. Mark Warner, who is running for Senate.

{mosads}Yet by attaching his name to the bill, sponsored by Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), Webb is taking a step away from Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the party’s presidential candidate, who opposes offshore drilling, and one closer to Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the GOP standard-bearer who recently called for lifting the federal ban.

Webb’s divergence from his party also comes as his name is being mentioned on Obama’s short list for a running mate.

A key McCain ally, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, seized on the similarities between Webb and McCain on offshore drilling.

“It shows Sen. Webb is right sometimes,” Graham said.

Webb rejected the suggestion that his position differs from other Democrats’, saying that the bill calls for “a very careful approach,” state leaders would be a key part of the decision, and Virginia desperately needs the revenue stream for cash-starved transportation needs. Such decisions therefore should be made by Virginia, not Washington, he said.

“We can’t just not act,” he said. “It’s time we had some leadership to really grab the larger picture and solve these problems.”

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D) of Illinois and Sen. Charles Schumer (D) of New York dismissed any concerns about Webb’s stance, saying they did not notice his proposal Wednesday. Durbin, however, pointedly rejected Webb’s argument that states should have the right to make drilling decisions.

“There’s national concerns here, too,” Durbin said.

The Obama campaign would not directly address Webb’s proposal, but instead pointed to a statement Obama released Wednesday on offshore drilling.

“Opening our coastlines to offshore drilling would take at least a decade to produce any oil at all, and the effect on gasoline prices would be negligible at best since America only has 3 percent of the world’s oil,” Obama said in a statement that did not explicitly distinguish between oil and gas drilling.

McCain on Tuesday reversed a long-held stance and called for states to have the right to explore for oil offshore. A pair of federal moratoriums have been in place since the 1980s — one controlled by the executive branch, one by Congress — that bar offshore drilling.

Webb’s proposal, unveiled Wednesday with John Warner, would allow Virginia to request a federal waiver to drill for natural gas at least 50 miles from the coastline on an exploration-only basis. A second waiver would be needed if gas is found, and any revenues would be split between state and federal coffers.

The legislation “offers a preliminary step toward exploration and development of one of our domestic energy sources,” Webb said. “In order to address our nation’s energy crisis, all options need to be on the table.”

One of Virginia’s most prominent environmental groups also opposes Webb’s idea, saying there is no plausible environmental distinction between gas and oil drilling and that any environmental damage would spread far beyond Virginia’s coast.

“This puts the camel’s nose under the tent,” said Glen Besa, director of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, which has 17,000 members in the commonwealth. “And the risk associated with this would affect not just Virginia. It would affect Maryland. It would affect North Carolina. You can’t just do this on a one-state-only basis.”

Kaine has carefully distinguished between oil and gas drilling, saying that Virginia so far does not endorse oil exploration. Mark Warner, campaigning Wednesday in the state, advocated lifting the federal moratorium on oil drilling to allow Virginia to explore. He also distinguished between oil and gas, saying that natural gas presents fewer environmental risks.