Breaking: House Passes Offshore Drilling Ban

Oregon’s environmental community just scored its first big win of the special session.

The House approved HB 3613, a bill that bans offshore oil and natural gas drilling in Oregon’s territorial waters.

An e-mail alert from Toby Van Fleet of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters says the vote to approve the bill was 38-21. It now goes to the Senate.

HB 3613 is a ten year ban on offshore drilling in the area of the Pacific Ocean that fall under the state’s jurisdiction. That’s the first three miles of waters off the Oregon coast.

The original version called for a permanent ban. But legislators settled on a ten-year compromise to get the bill out of committee and on to the floor. Brock Howell with Environment Oregon says that’s an improvement over the current law. “This is a successful compromise that results in a moratorium four times longer than the one that expired last month,” said Howell in a statement.

If the bill becomes law, it won’t prevent the federal government from approving oil and gas leases further off the coast. But supporters have said in the past that it will send a message to the feds, and to the oil and gas industry, that offshore drilling isn’t welcome anywhere off Oregon’s shoreline.

The bill’s sponsor is Rep. Ben Cannon of Portland.