The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation that will rescind nearly 14 billion U.S. dollars in tax breaks and subsidies for oil drillers and reserve the money to develop alternative energy projects and conservation technologies, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

The measure was passed 264 to 163 on Thursday, with many Republicans joining a bloc of Democrats to support the legislation, said the report.

The passage came despite opposition from the oil industry and the Bush administration, which said the bill singled out the companies for higher taxes and could increase the country's dependence on foreign oil, the report added.

The bill will rescind 7.6 billion dollars in tax breaks for oil drillers that Congress passed in 2004 and 2005 and will add 6.3 billion dollars in royalties from companies that pump oil and gas in publicly owned waters of the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska, according to the report.

One provision is intended to correct errors in drilling leases signed by the Interior Department in the late 1990s that allowed oil companies to escape billions of dollars in royalties over the next decade.

The provision, opposed by the White House and the industry, will require companies that refuse to change their leases to pay a "conservation fee" on each barrel they produce. Otherwise, under the bill, the companies will be barred from acquiring additional leases.

Source: Xinhua