House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) sponsored H.R. 2231, the Offshore Energy and Jobs Act, which would expand offshore drilling off the coasts of South Carolina, Virginia, California, and in Alaska’s Bristol Bay. This legislation would put many coastal communities at risk of an oil spill at a time when total U.S. oil production from both onshore and offshore drilling has reached its highest level in 20 years, and the oil industry already holds drilling rights to more than 30 million acres offshore on which it is not producing oil. The bill also increases the risks from offshore drilling by further weakening an environmental review process that the National Oil Spill Commission found was already grossly inadequate. On June 28, the House approved H.R. 2231 by a vote of 235-186 (House roll call vote 304). NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. The Senate took no action on this legislation.