Deal on Gulf Coast Drilling Reached

U.S. Senate leaders have reached an agreement on the broad contours of a plan that will expand U.S. oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, The Hill reports. The deal, which has not been written into actual legislation yet, offers more protections and revenue to gulf coast states than does a bill that passed in the House earlier this year. The House plan was opposed by lawmakers from those states and was pronounced dead on arrival in the Senate.

While late is better than never, the United States is on the verge of reaching a point at which we will deeply regret waiting so long to do anything to expand domestic oil production.