Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) today said a three-year extension of a per-barrel tax on oil drilling likely will be used to offset the cost of her bill to send 80 percent of the Deepwater Horizon spill penalties to the five Gulf Coast states for economic and environmental restoration projects.

Landrieu said the "RESTORE Act," which is co-sponsored by eight of the nine other Gulf-state senators, has "a lot of support" but that she is still hunting for the filibuster-proof 60 votes needed to push it through before the end of the year.

"I know of no opposition at this point," Landrieu said this afternoon.

Landrieu wants to see the bill either as a stand-alone or attached to other legislation and approved before the year is out.

The extension of the 8-cent-per-barrel tax would be used to offset the $1.2 billion price tag that the Congressional Budget Office has assigned the committee-passed Senate bill. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is set to consider the lower chamber's version of the legislation in a hearing tomorrow (E&E Daily, Dec. 5).

Both bills outline complicated but similar formulas for subdividing the penalty money that would be captured and sent to Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

A key difference is that the Senate bill would devote 60 percent of the money to environmental restoration projects to rebuild oyster reefs, disappearing wetlands and barrier islands. Thirty percent of the House bill would be devoted to environmental restoration, while another 30 percent would be divided up among states based on an "impact-driven formula."

Landrieu called the differences between the House and Senate bills "bridgeable."

The only Gulf-state senator not signed onto the bill is Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn. He said this afternoon that he is pushing for a better deal for Texas, which was hurt economically, rather than environmentally.

Cornyn said that although the bill had not won his vote yet, he is "certainly not an impediment to moving forward." The senator said the offshore drilling moratorium that followed the oil spill, in particular, hit Texas hard.

"I have some concerns about the formula which, I think, discounts the economic impact on states like mine that weren't directly affected by oil on the beaches but nevertheless suffered a significant economic impact," Cornyn said.

Asked how Texas was hurt, Cornyn said: "A lot of jobs destroyed, particularly as a result of the moratorium."