Wyden Ties up Senate in Protest of Oil Subsidies

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(WASHINGTON, D.C. AP) - Oregon Senator Ron Wyden tied up the Senate for more than four-and-a-half hours Thursday trying to force a vote on energy.

Wyden wants to make energy companies pay royalties on hundreds of leases of federal land.

Companies do not have to pay royalties now under a program put in place when energy prices were low.

The royalty relief program was intended to encourage drilling off the Gulf of Mexico and on other federal lands.

But now that oil prices are high, Wyden says the program is "the granddaddy of all subsidy programs" for the oil industry.

Majority Republicans refused the vote.

So Democrat Wyden took control of the Senate floor and refused to allow senators to move forward on other issues until mid-afternoon.