[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 154 (Friday, September 26, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H9977-H9978]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF

  (Mr. REGULA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. REGULA. Madam Speaker, today I rise to congratulate the Members 
of this body on their support for the continuing resolution which we 
approved earlier this week, as it removed the provision that had 
prohibited oil and gas leasing in vast areas of the Outer Continental 
Shelf. This action is indeed historic. I know, because I am one of the 
few Members of this body who was here when the moratorium was first 
placed on the Interior appropriations bill. This history is instructive 
and one that needs to be recorded.
  The story began in 1969 with a 3 million gallon oil spill off of 
Santa Barbara. Until recently, a lesser known consequence of this event 
was the congressional moratorium that forbid exploration of the OCS.
  The late 1970s were a time of oil shortages, lines at the pump, and 
even gasoline rationing. In 1978, President Carter boldly declared our 
energy situation to be the moral equivalent of war. Congress rose to 
that challenge by passing the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 
declaring it to be the policy of the United States that, and I quote: 
``The OCS is a vital national resource held by the Federal Government 
for the public, which should be made available for expeditious and 
orderly development . . . ''
  Had we done that, we would have oil today. The ink was barely dry on 
these words before Congress began derailing its own policy, and by 1981 
with the long lines at the pumps gone, Congress placed the first 
moratorium, which applied to only 736,000 acres in one area. Since 
then, the amount of

[[Page H9978]]

oil and gas resources we placed off limits has exploded to almost 266 
million acres--18 percent of the whole Outer Continental Shelf.
  Next, in July 1985 Secretary of the Interior Donald Hodel and members 
of the California congressional delegation announced a preliminary 
agreement to both protect and develop the California Outer Continental 
Shelf. Under that agreement, just 150 of the 6,450 tracts under 
moratoria restrictions would be available for lease, with the remainder 
protected until the year 2000.
  Even that minimal concession sparked an outcry, including the specter 
of oil soaked beaches, and headlines in the LA Times: ``Drilling Plan 
Sparks Coast Battle Cry''.
  At that time I testified and still believe today that the issue of 
leasing on the OCS is principally one of aesthetics, the Not in My Back 
Yard (NIMBY) syndrome, not an environmental one. Further, I said: 
``Today we have no energy crisis, making it the ideal time to begin the 
safe and orderly development of the OCS. In the event of an energy 
crisis in the near future how many of us are going to want to tell our 
constituents that we were responsible for tying up this national 
resource?''
  The Hodel deal crumbled, and a bipartisan Congressional negotiating 
team was named to try to craft a new proposal. This group met 16 times 
between January and July 1986, but no consensus could be reached. 
Rather the Secretary was directed to consider all of the proposals in 
preparing the next Five-Year Plan for OCS Leasing and Development.
  This effort was followed in 1989 by the President's establishment of 
an Interagency OCS Task Force to examine adverse impacts of lease sales 
offshore California and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
  In testimony before that body I noted that: ``The real effects of 
these moratoria have been to deprive the Nation of the opportunity to 
determine the size of its offshore resource base, to increase our 
dependence on unstable foreign sources, to increase our exposure to the 
risk of tanker spills and to increasingly force our domestic oil and 
gas industry to look to other nations for opportunities to locate oil 
and gas resources.''
  Not surprisingly, in June 1990 President George H. W. Bush announced 
his decision to put 99 percent of the California coast and the coast of 
southwest Florida off limits to oil and gas leasing and development 
until after the year 2000. Despite even that assurance the ``one year'' 
annual legislative moratorium remained in effect. However, on July 15 
of this year President George Bush lifted the Executive Ban on 
drilling, reigniting the age old debate. and this week, this House 
removed the last barrier to exploring in the OCS. The issue is not 
behind us though, and the next Congress must be vigilant in ensuring 
that these lands remain open to exploration.

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