President Obama signaled his support for expanded oil and natural gas drilling on the the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) during a White House meeting with Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Tuesday.

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) urged Obama to reimpose the moratorium on OCS drilling, but the “president said, ‘That was not going to happen,'” Rep. Gene Green (D-TX), who attended the meeting, told NGI. The president further said he supported opening offshore areas that previously have been banned, Green said.

“That was music to my ears being from Texas,” he said. “I kept quiet because the president was doing better than I could.” The White House meeting, which lasted more than an hour, was called to discuss climate change legislation that is currently stalled due to differing regional interests of the Democratic members of the House energy panel. The president’s comment about the OCS “was icing on the cake,” Green said.

Obama “encouraged us to finish work on climate change,” he said. Green said he was hopeful that the committee will vote out the climate change bill so the full House could vote on it before the Memorial Day recess.

With respect to emissions allowances, Obama said he understood that a final climate change bill would have to reflect regional differences, according to Green. Green said he has asked for 5% of the emission credit allowances for refineries in Texas; Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) is seeking 15% of emission credit allowances for chemicals, aluminum and steel; and Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) is working on an allowance proposal for the electricity industry.

The centerpiece of the climate change bill before the House energy panel is a cap-and-trade system, which would cap carbon emissions and allow emitting industries to trade emission credits. Obama in the past has said he supports a 100% auction of emission credits to raise revenues for renewable and alternative fuels, but Green said the president indicated Tuesday that he may be more flexible on this issue in order to get a climate change bill through Congress.

©Copyright 2009Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.