Aha! The carrot appears. Where's the stick?

reviewjournal.com -- News - EDITORIAL: Offshore drilling plan passes House:

"But on June 29, something changed. Rep. Peterson, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., and two Louisiana lawmakers -- Republican Bobby Jindal and Democrat Charlie Melancon -- decided to try the world's second-oldest incentive. They included in their latest proposal to lift the offshore drilling ban a provision that would allow individual states to keep the offshore moratorium in place if they so choose, and -- here's the smart part -- changed the revenue sharing arrangement so that states' share of royalties would eventually soar to as much as 75 percent.

For example, the Gulf states where most offshore drilling now takes place get less than 5 percent of total royalties. But under the new proposal, Louisiana's royalties would go from $32 million last year to a total of $8.6 billion over the next 10 years -- and even higher after that.

Imagine that. They offered them money. And lo and behold, on Thursday the House OK'd the new offshore drilling plan, 232-187."

Money. The universal solvent.