Great Lakes Article:

Great Lakes oil and gas drilling ban is blocked
By Greg Wright / Gannett News Service
Posted on WZZM13.com April 21, 2005

WASHINGTON - A House committee Wednesday killed a plan to permanently ban oil and gas drilling on the Great Lakes, the source of one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water.

The House Rules Committee refused to let the full House vote to put the drilling ban into an energy bill that would boost U.S. oil and gas supplies. The House began debating the energy bill Wednesday.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers who support the ban, including Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan and Republican Rep. Vernon Ehlers of Michigan, said they would not give up.

The United States has a moratorium on oil and gas drilling in the Great Lakes that expires in 2007. Canada allows drilling on its side of the lakes.

But some U.S. lawmakers warn that increased drilling raises the risk of oil spills and hazardous gas leaks that would endanger lakeside residents and further wreck the lakes' fragile ecology.

"There are just some places you just shouldn't do it, and the Great Lakes is one of them," Stupak said.

The Great Lakes cover 94,000 square miles, according to the Great Lakes Information Network, and supply drinking water to 30 million people.

Drilling would be environmentally safe, some oil industry officials said. Canada has drilled more than 2,000 wells on its side of the lakes and has not had one spill or leak that has caused "environmental Armageddon," said Tom Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.