POMBO LOOKS OUT FOR STATE’S RIGHTS – WITH THE DOER ACT!
Right now, there is no federal law that bans drilling for oil off of the coastline of the United States. There are two temporary bans — one that is passed annually by Congress, and another which is even more tenuous, an "executive order" of the President which the Chief Executive can undo with 
the stroke of a pen. There are many who believe that drilling for oil offshore is a bad idea, and some that think it is a good idea. California Congressman Richard Pombo has been pushing hard to pass legislation that simply makes the issue of whether such oil drilling should happen off of the coast a state’s rights issue rather than a decision made by politicians in Washington, D.C.
The political reality is that the California legislature would never approve such drilling on its own coastline, but that doesn’t mean that other coastal state governments might choose to do otherwise.
Actually, Pombo’s legislation has two important features to it, in addition to moving the decision on allowing drilling from the federal to the state level. The first is that it permits revenue sharing so that if a state does allow the drilling, the state government benefits financially. Secondly, the legislation gives a state the ability, should it choose to prohibit offshore drilling, to do so for a vastly longer distance from the coastline.
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