Committee approves drilling ban subpoenas

Subpoena power: Committee seeks more information on drilling ban

Reuters/Scanpix

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Kathrine Schmidt

 28 March 2012 21:58 GMT

Conservative lawmakers on Wednesday stepped up the pressure on the Obama administration to release more information about the six-month deep-water drilling suspension following the 2010 Macondo oil spill.

In a party-line vote, the House Natural Resources Committee voted 23-17 to give Chairman Doc Hastings subpoena power for documents showing how the government came to the decision and whether it falsely claimed support from experts who didn’t support the idea. The ban was lifted in October 2010.

“Thousands of American jobs and American energy production have or will be impacted by these Obama administration policies,” Hastings, a Republican from Washington state who has pushed the issue for over a year, said in a statement. “Serious questions remain regarding the…

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