House votes to end oil drilling ban  Feeling election-year heat,
Democrats agree to let states permit exploration 50 to 100 miles
off their coasts.  September 17, 2008|Richard Simon | Times
Staff Writer   The measure would let states decide whether to
permit energy exploration 50 to 100 miles off their coasts,
ending a drilling ban that was put in place for much of the
California coastline in 1981 and expanded to much of the rest of
the United States in 1985. It would allow drilling 100 miles or
more offshore regardless of a state's wishes.  The bill drew a
veto threat from the White House, which contended that it didn't
go far enough to generate new domestic supplies of oil and
natural gas and objected to a number of its other provisions,
including the repeal of oil industry tax breaks that it said
could discourage new exploration.  Its prospects are uncertain
in the Senate, which may begin debating energy legislation as
early as Wednesday. The 236-189 House vote was, until recently,
unthinkable.  "Before us