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Washington, DC – In an effort to reduce natural gas prices that have risen to record levels and to provide additional domestic supply for West Virginia’s natural gas-dependent chemical and metals industries, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) yesterday voted for increased drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. 70 Senators joined Rockefeller in voting for the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act.

According to industry and government analyses, the opening up of the new Gulf tracts could yield as much as 5.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas with no significant environmental consequences to the Florida coastline or anywhere along the Gulf Coast.  The move should preserve jobs in West Virginia’s chemical industry. With a greater domestic supply of available natural gas, companies are more likely to put future investments into existing plants, instead of building new plants overseas

“The increase in domestic natural gas supplies will not only mean lower prices for those West Virginians who use natural gas to heat their homes – its most dramatic impact will be to strengthen our West Virginia chemical industry,” Rockefeller said.

“With natural gas more available here at home, our chemical companies are more likely to reinvest in their existing West Virginia plants. That makes this bill not only an effort to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but also first and foremost a jobs bill. Those are the kind of results we need in West Virginia.”

Rockefeller also noted that the drilling of parts of Lease Sale Area 181 could yield as much as 1.26 billion barrels of oil. Although new production at this level is not likely to bring about any significant short-term price reductions in the price of gasoline, any increase America’s domestic production and supply of oil will further reduce the nation’s reliance on oil from foreign countries.

“This drilling may take place hundreds of miles from the Mountain State, but we will feel the economic effects of this action here at home,” said Rockefeller.

Rockefeller has been pushing the Bush administration for months to reverse course and open this area known, broadly, as Lease Sale Area 181 for drilling. He does not support drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge because, unlike the Gulf of Mexico, potential reserves are extremely speculative, drilling in ANWR would be prohibitively expensive, and would, according to reliable estimates, potentially produce relatively meager amounts of oil only after about a decade.

The House passed a different version of the bill on June 29.

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