Vote in House Seeks to Erase Oil Windfall

NYT

WASHINGTON, May 18 — In an attempt to revoke billions of dollars worth of government incentives to oil and gas producers, the House approved a measure on Thursday that would order the government to renegotiate more than 1,000 leases with companies that drill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The measure, approved 252 to 165 over the objections of many Republican leaders, is intended to pressure companies that are expected to avoid at least $7 billion in payments to the government over the next five years for oil and gas they produce in publicly owned waters.

Scores of Republicans, already under fire from voters about gasoline prices, sided with Democrats on the issue. Though none of them spoke up during the floor debate, 85 Republicans voted to attach the provision to the Interior Department's annual spending bill. The measure would require adoption by the Senate and will almost certainly provoke intense opposition from oil and gas producers.

In a raucous debate on the House floor before the vote, Democratic lawmakers argued that energy companies were shortchanging taxpayers at the same time that soaring prices for crude oil and natural gas have pushed industry profits to record highs.

"Oil companies want to play Uncle Sam for Uncle Sucker," said Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who co-sponsored the amendment with Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, Democrat of New York. "Today, we must put an end to these senseless giveaways."...