On August 1, 2006, the US Senate voted 71 - 25 to approve the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006, which allowed oil and gas drilling in about 8.3 million acres of federal waters in the central gulf. The House of Representatives took up a similar measure in December 2006, passing the same compromise legislation as the Senate. The federal government reigned in such open drilling policies in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, although new federal policies governing offshore drilling are still pending.

Learn more about the laws governing offshore drilling and oil production from the JURIST news archive.