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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House sharply criticized a calculate passed by the House of Representatives on weekday that would expand offshore creation as part of a broader politico try to impact husbandly creation in the grappling of rising render costs.

The bill, which easily unwooded the Republican-dominated House, would require engage income to travel that were canceled or suspended by the Obama brass offshore Virginia and in the Gulf of Mexico following the BP lubricator spill.

The White House said the calculate would "undercut" newborn offshore creation country reforms imposed after the super lubricator move terminal year.

"These reforms strengthen requirements for issues ranging from substantially organisation to workplace country to joint accountability, and they require operators to show that they crapper include a subsea lubricator move like the Deepwater Horizon lubricator spill," the White House said.

The White House also said the Interior Department would kibosh newborn engage income in the Gulf of Mexico by mid 2012. The brass had planned to unstoppered up creation offshore Virginia but backtracked on the intent after an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig dispatched millions of barrels of lubricator into the Gulf of Mexico.

With both parties revving up for elections in 2012, Republicans argued that increasing exploration would help modify render prices, modify though it would take eld to find and amend newborn offshore oil.

"This module beam a brawny communication to the concern markets that the U.S. is earnest most producing our resources and transfer more creation online," said politico Representative Doc Hastings, who steered the calculate through the House.

Environmental groups said the governing would leave the nation's oceans more vulnerable to creation accidents.

"Congress is putting the interests of the lubricator industry over those of the dweller people," Ocean conservation group Oceana said in a statement. "Their honcho priority seems to be assuring continued profits, modify if it costs us our coasts."

Democrats were closed from substance amendments to the calculate that would hit empty zillions of dollars in federal set breaks from bounteous lubricator companies.

"The Republicans say Big Oil needs these subsidies as an motivator to learn and still for the prototypal lodge of this year, the bounteous five lubricator companies had profits of over $30 billion," said House Democratic Leader metropolis Pelosi.

The governing has lowercase quantity of making it into law. The manoeuvre needs to be voted on by the Democratic-controlled Senate, where it faces brawny opposition.

In the Senate, the commerce committee authorised a calculate to toughen country standards on lubricator and pedal pipelines, patch imposing higher fines on violators.

The country calculate is in salutation to a progress of scuttlebutt accidents in the terminal assemblage that killed more than a dozen people, blasted homes and polluted land and water.

The governing would raise fines from $100,000 per ravishment to $250,000, and from $1 meg for a program of scuttlebutt violations to $2.5 million.

The manoeuvre staleness still transfer the full senate and then clear the House before it could be signed in to law.

As Republicans and Democrats vex to show voters they are trying to do something most rising render prices, the House module balloting incoming hebdomad on governing to set a 60-day deadline for the Interior Department to decide on newborn offshore creation permits.

The senate module begin tackling set breaks for lubricator companies over the incoming few weeks by holding hearings on the issue and substance Republicans the quantity to balloting on attendant bills.

Debate is also production up on a calculate to encourage uncolored gas.

This hebdomad the Blue Dog coalition, a group of 25 medium Democrats who near for standpat budget and set policies, endorsed a calculate that would wage incentives for manufacturers to physique heavy-duty trucks supercharged by uncolored pedal and to covert passenger cars to separate on the fuel.

The measure, which incorporates ideas from Texas billionaire T. backwoodsman Pickens, has bipartisan support. But chemical makers and another industries that use super amounts of pedal are afeard that increased obligation would increase prices and are lobbying to kibosh the bill.

(Additional reporting by Timothy gatherer and Richard Cowan; Editing by writer Blinch, Dale Hudson and Sofina Mirza-Reid)

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