The latest amendment offered by Senator Byron Dorgan will also open the Destin Dome area 24 miles south of Pensacola to drilling.
The American Petroleum Institute expects the Destin Dome region has a minimum two trillion cubic feet of natural gas, sufficient to heat two million homes for 15 years.
The American Petroleum Institute said the total region in the eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico that would be opened to drilling under this legislation could comprise 3.7 billion barrels of oil and 21.5 tcf of natural gas.
The Senate panel also granted an alteration that clarifies that federal agencies are not restricted from buying fuels developed from Canadian oil sands. The 2007 energy bill integrated a measure that blocked the federal government from purchasing alternative fuels with greenhouse gas emissions higher than conventional sources. It was planned at liquid fuel derived from coal, but involuntarily affected oil sands.
Another measure adopted by the panel would need the 50 biggest traders of oil contracts to report any oil reserves they are storing offshore in tankers.
Senator Bernie Sanders offered the change. He said his amendment is intended at preventing traders from distorting supply records and artificially driving up prices.
The committee is estimated to grant the entire energy package later in the week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said earlier in 2009 that he wanted to combine the energy bill with legislation addressing climate change. Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman said he would support whatever decision Reid makes on how to move the bill through the chamber.
But the bill may face a rocky road on the Senate floor as both Democrats and Republicans on the committee had objections to some offers.
Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu made an impassioned appeal for revenue sharing for states, supplying a second degree change.
Her proposal, which was defeated, would have given 37.5% of the revenues the government obtains from oil and gas leases to coastal states, specifically Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson, though not a member of the committee, said the change would reduce into the US military’s largest testing and training area in the world.
We will have a bunch of senators filibuster this if we have to protect the interest of the U.S. military, he told reporters.
The panel voted down an alteration that would have permitted energy firms to tap oil in Alaska’s Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge through directional drilling based outside the refuge’s boundaries, going under the reserve at an angle.
