Kaufman hopes to support climate bill, despite offshore drilling stance
By NICOLE GAUDIANO, Gannett Washington Bureau -- Sen. Ted Kaufman's opposition to offshore drilling may not cost Democrats his vote on climate change legislation.
The Delaware Democrat told reporters today he opposes President Barack Obama's plan to expand offshore drilling and doesn't want climate change legislation to allow such exploration. But he said he will see what the bill says before deciding how to vote.
A week ago, Kaufman and nine other senators from coastal states wrote colleagues that they "cannot support legislation that will mitigate one risk only to put our coasts at greater peril from another source."
Kaufman said today he didn't mean to imply he would definitely oppose a climate change bill.
"I think the final bill will be probably a combination climate change/energy independence bill, and that's what I will support -- hopefully," he said. "When it comes to the offshore drilling section, I'm opposed to it."
Kaufman took reporters' questions during a conference call from Afghanistan. He has been traveling there and in Iraq and Pakistan, meeting with each country's president and senior political and military leaders.
Obama announced Wednesday he will allow offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in waters off the Atlantic Coast and Alaska. The sale of leases 50 miles off the Virginia coast could come as early as 2011.
While Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., supports the plan, Kaufman restated his opposition today and said the country should focus on wind power and other renewable sources of energy.
"I think it's a bad mistake for Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey," he said. "We get a lot of our income from tourism, and I think anytime you put oil off the coast you have the chance of oil spills and things, which would just be devastating."
Contact Nicole Gaudiano at ngaudiano@gannett.com.
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