Drilling

Big Oil, after a 10-year stalemate, has lost its fight, at least for now, for drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska. Environmentalists, making ANWR their driving wedge to block energy legislation they decried as the handiwork of the petroleum, coal and nuclear power industries, resorted to a Senate filibuster to win the day. They had the support of both Maryland senators. Fifty senators, half the membership, wanted to push the measure to passage, but they lacked the 60 votes needed to cut off debate.

A former top Pennsylvania official warned Maryland lawmakers to go slow in allowing drilling for natural gas in Marcellus shale deposits underlying the state's western mountains or risk the environmental and social problems his state is now experiencing from a poorly regulated wave of energy exploration. John Quigley, who until two months ago was secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, urged members of the House Environmental Matters Committee to "take a deep breath" and require more study of the immediate and long-term consequences of opening Western Maryland to drilling for natural gas using a controversial technique known as hydraulic fracturing.

Recent articles in your newspaper have shown the chaos, turmoil and revolutions happening in the Middle East, starting with Egypt, and spreading to other Middle East nations. The revolution in Egypt may turn for the worse as The Muslim Brotherhood has a strong probability of taking over, and this group is anti-Israel and anti-American. This, coupled with other extremist Islamic countries, poses a real danger to the USA by stopping the flow of oil to our country. With all of this turmoil happening, the gas prices are soaring at the pump along with food prices and other commodities.

WASHINGTON -- Key lawmakers in the U.S. House have reached a landmark deal to allow oil and gas drilling as close as 100 miles from the nation's shores, and even closer if states permit it. The agreement could spark a bruising fight among members from Florida and other coastal states who are split between taking a deal and continuing to fight for more protections. Rep. Adam H. Putnam, a Florida Republican, reached the agreement over the weekend with Republican House Resources Chairman Richard W. Pombo of California and several Resources Committee members, lawmakers said yesterday.

BELL, Calif. -- A 50-year-old man was trapped under tons of sand and mud when the ground gave way under him at a drilling site south of Los Angeles where he was working, Los Angeles County fire officials said yesterday.Officials still held out some hope that Ken Stott of San Bernardino might still be alive hours after he was buried by soil in the freak accident at a Southern California Water Co. plant site. Mr. Stott was there drilling a new well."We're treating it as if he is still alive," said Fire Department Capt.

WASHINGTON -- More than a dozen areas off Maryland and near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay are being considered for oil and gas drilling rights by the Bush administration, although lawmakers are working to scrap a plan they say is environmentally risky.The proposal for oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic coast -- part of the five-year national energy plan unveiled by President Bush earlier this year -- enters its first phase this summer with the release of a draft report that will consider 1,000 proposed tracts from New Jersey to Georgia.

WASHINGTON -- A Bush administration proposal to open an energy-rich tract of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling has touched off a tough fight in Congress, the latest demonstration of the political barriers to providing new energy supplies even at a time of high demand and record prices. The 2 million-acre area, in deep waters 100 miles south of Pensacola, Fla., is estimated to contain nearly half a billion barrels of oil and 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to run roughly a million vehicles and heat more than half a million homes for about 15 years.

Steve Rockel converted only four spares in his league Monday night.That's all he had to convert -- the rest of his frames were strikes.Rockel, 34, a beer distributor from Perry Hall, rolled games of 280, 279 and 268 for a huge 827 set, by far his highest ever."

LA PLATA -- Texaco Inc.'s plan to drill for natural gas or oil in Southern Maryland is drawing fire from environmentalists, who question the company's assurances that its well poses no threat to Chesapeake Bay or the environment.About 45 people, most of them armed with complaints and skepticism, came to the Bel Alton fire house last night for a public hearing on Texaco's request for a state permit to sink a 10,000-foot-deep exploratory well near Faulkner in Charles County.Company officials outlined the safeguards they planned to prevent any oil or other pollutants from spilling into Popes Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River that is about 2,000 feet from the proposed drilling site.

Texaco's plans to drill for oil near the Chesapeake Bay in Charles County are on hold after the company came up dry in its third test drilling in Virginia, a spokeswoman said yesterday.An official from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which has warned oil drilling in Maryland could have a devastating effect on the environment, said yesterday the company's lack of success "does not sadden us."Texaco Inc. suspended exploratory drilling Tuesday on a farm in King George County, Va., after failing to find oil or natural gas in any commercial quantities, company spokeswoman Deborah Alford said.