The moratorium on offshore drilling that has blanketed much of the U.S. coastline for 26 years and most of it, including Virginia, since 1990 will, it is now clear, expire in a few days.
House Democrats in Washington passed -- on a mostly party-line vote -- an energy bill last week that would allow for some drilling in addition to pushing alternative energy investment. But that was a non-starter with Republicans, the Senate and the White House.
And now the Democratic leadership will allow the moratorium -- which has been renewed on an annual basis -- to lapse after Sept. 30 rather than force something else through.
David Obey, a Democrat from Wisconsin and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said the presidential election will now be key in deciding the direction of the country's drilling policy because beginning Wednesday of next week, this country will lack any clear direction on offshore drilling policy.
The Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore exploration and production (and, let's not forget, recently got hammered for its employees having ridiculously inappropriate relationships with oil company reps), has already put Virginia in the queue to open up the coast for leasing in 2011. The decision was largely moot when the moratorium was still in place, but that's not the case anymore.
So, the push to drill more offshore began in Virginia and the whole maze-like process could lead back here soon enough. Check back after Nov. 4.
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