This makes sense to me:
The Senate voted today to allow a federal inventory of offshore oil and gas reserves, a program that opponents said would undermine longstanding bans on new drilling along much of the nation’s coastline.
Considering a broad energy bill, senators voted, 54 to 44, to let the Interior Department use a variety of technologies to try to measure the amount of oil and gas beneath the outer continental shelf.
Supporters said that in light of fluctuating energy supplies and rising natural gas prices, it was prudent to determine what was available if the nation had to rely on domestic sources. They denied it was a precursor to drilling in areas now off limits.
I am not sure why some people think their state shoujld be immune from helping to carry the burden of meeting the nation’s energy needs. Why shouldn’t we be able to drill where the oil is? Where do all the Greenpeace and Sierra Club members think the oil that they used to drive their Subaru to the co-op comes from?