A bipartisan group of senators led by Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) is opposed to opening up restricted areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to oil and natural gas exploration as part of upcoming omnibus energy legislation.

“Our concern is that these provisions would improperly centralize jurisdictional authority to the Department of Interior over our nation’s coastal waters, undermine legitimate states’ rights, and threaten decades of effective and successful cooperation with coastal states under the Coastal Zone Management Act,” the senators said in a Feb. 10 letter to Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee who will be in charge of steering the energy bill through the Senate.

“We oppose these provisions and ask for their exclusion from [the upcoming] energy legislation,” the group of senators said. “Any efforts to include language authorizing new drilling or exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf ignores long-standing protections to our coastlines.”

Joining Boxer and Dole opposing the drilling provisions were Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC), John Kerry (D-MA), Maria Cantwell (D-CA), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Susan Collins (D-ME), Olympia Snowe (D-ME) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

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