MEMBERS OF CONGRESS FIGHTING OVER GREAT LAKES DRILLING

Two members of Congress are fighting over whether the federal government should ban drilling for oil and gas in the Great Lakes. Right now it’s up to each state to decide whether to allow drilling. Bart Stupak is a Deomcrat Member of Congress from Michigan whose district touches three of the Great Lakes. After an incident in his district where hydrogen sulfide fumes from a gas well head made residents and emergency workers sick... he’s for banning drilling altogether... “We should just once and for all permanently ban oil and gas drilling in and on the shores of our lakes through a method called directional or slant drilling. There’s so little oil and gas there, it’s not worth it.” Stupak introduced an amendment to ban drilling in the Great Lakes... but another Member of Congress from Michigan, Republican Mike Rogers blocked it. Rogers’ office says taking state control away on drilling could lead to taking state control away on other issues such as water withdrawal. He doesn’t want the more politically powerful arid Southwest states using it as a precedent to take federal control of the Great Lakes