Durbin voices doubt on extending drilling ban

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) conceded Tuesday that Democrats might not be able to extend the nearly three-decade-old ban on offshore drilling when Congress takes up spending legislation this month. 

{mosads}Under election-year pressures from Republicans over rising gas prices, Democrats have dropped their resistance to new offshore drilling on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. And Democratic leaders in both chambers seem willing to concede that they lack the support to add the drilling ban to a continuing resolution that will keep the government operating past Oct. 1. Since 1981, Congress has put the drilling ban on spending legislation to prohibit the Interior Department from using federal dollars on oil and gas lease sales along the coastal United States.

Democrats had considered pushing through the stopgap resolution with the offshore drilling ban and daring the GOP to block the measure, which would shut down the federal government just weeks before Election Day. But they now seem reluctant for such a high-profile fight before Nov. 4.

"That will be hard to do, at this point," Durbin said of extending the offshore drilling ban. "As you can see, we're making some concessions on the issue."

Both chambers are taking up legislation this week to give states the authority to expand oil drilling off their coasts. However, the prospect of reaching a resolution and sending it to President Bush’s desk before the Sept. 26 target adjournment date seems murky.

“There is no way we can avoid having the decision made legislatively on the moratorium,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).