[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 105 (Thursday, July 15, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H5661-H5668]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 OIL DRILLING NEEDED IN GULF OF MEXICO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Madam Speaker, the spill in the gulf coast has 
produced an environmental tragedy, and obviously losing the lives of 11 
American workers has been devastating for the families. Our prayers are 
with them.
  The gulf coast right now, the priority of America has to be stopping 
the oil from gushing, and it seems to be making progress there, 
protecting our beaches and marshes. But we have a new threat to the 
Gulf of Mexico and America, especially its workers, and this is the 
White House's moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
  According to the Federal courts, the moratorium has been stayed. It 
was overly broad without much scientific basis. It didn't result in 
anything more safe or secure for the gulf. But nonetheless, the 
Secretary of the Interior has issued a new moratorium, thumbing his 
nose at the courts and really creating a broader moratorium that has 
stopped drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
  The impact of this is that American rigs are leaving the Gulf of 
Mexico, and U.S. jobs with it. Capital will soon follow and, 
ultimately, if the moratorium is allowed to go its full 6 months until 
the end of the year, we will see a significant, severe dismantling of 
America's energy infrastructure, future higher gas prices, and we will 
be ceding more of our energy independence to Middle East and foreign 
oil.
  The truth of the matter is, today, the Gulf of Mexico has been 
extraordinarily safe to explore for America's traditional energy, our 
oil and gas. Over 50,000 wells have been drilled in the Gulf of Mexico. 
This is the first major spill. Over 14,000 deepwater wells have been 
drilled around the world. This is the first major spill. And just as 
you don't stop all automobile production because there is a problem 
with one model, the White House, unfortunately, has stopped all energy 
production in the gulf because of the disaster with British Petroleum. 
And the impact on our jobs and our economy is severe. They are laying 
off workers today. Small businesses are struggling to survive. Rigs are 
being deployed overseas.
  Joining me today to talk about the impact to this economy is 
Congressman John Culberson of Houston, as well. He and I were in a 
roundtable last week with a number of our small, midsize, independent 
businesses who are already laying off workers and redeploying resources 
as a result of this terrible moratorium that unfortunately is turning 
an environmental disaster, making it worse by creating an economic 
disaster, not just in the Gulf of Mexico but one that will reach 
throughout the United States.
  So I yield to the gentleman from Texas, Mr. John Culberson.
  Mr. CULBERSON. Thank you, Mr. Brady. Thank you for the invitation, 
for putting together the roundtable with industries in the Houston area 
who are part of the oil and gas industry.
  We, in Houston, know that our city is to the energy industry what 
Silicon Valley is to the computer industry, and there are jobs, not 
just throughout southeast Texas and Louisiana but throughout the 
Nation, that are dependent on the oil and gas industry. We, as a 
Nation, are dependent upon the oil and gas produced in the Gulf of 
Mexico for--I've seen numbers as high as 80 percent of the oil that the 
United States--where does that 80 percent number come from, Kevin, of 
the oil and gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico? What percentage of the 
oil and gas consumed by the United States comes out of the Gulf of 
Mexico?
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. I think we probably produce about 30 percent. 
Much of the specialty oil is for jet fuel and a number of our fuels.
  Mr. CULBERSON. That's what I remember. The jet fuel is particularly 
vital.
  And, Kevin, we found out in the roundtable you held in Houston last 
week, as you said, jobs are being lost as we speak. We, as a Nation, 
are going to lose those jobs permanently. The infrastructure, the rigs 
themselves, particularly the semisubmersible floating rigs, are 
tremendously expensive to operate and maintain, and they are already 
leaving.
  Kevin, what did we learn? What did you hear about what's happening to 
these offshore rigs? Where are they going if we don't reverse this 
moratorium and stop it?
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Already, Diamond Offshore's announced that the 
first rig is leaving the United States for Egypt. They are already 
leaving, planning to leave others for West Africa, the Middle East, 
Brazil, and those points. And as they made the point, these rigs, you 
have them for a limited amount of time. They are well sought

[[Page H5662]]

out for around the world. And when they leave, they don't come back for 
years.
  And with them are our energy workers, the companies that support 
them, American businesses that sell to them and ship to them and 
provide those services. And as we know, the rest of the world, 
including state-owned enterprises in China, is now aggressively 
swooping in to bid for these rigs which, again, takes away our jobs and 
our prosperity.

                              {time}  1530

  Mr. CULBERSON. Once they're gone, those rigs will be almost 
impossible to bring back to the United States. The world's appetite for 
oil is going to continue for some time. All of us are committed to an 
all-of-the-above energy policy that encourages development in the 
intermediate term of alternative energy sources and the longer term, 
developing innovative new technologies like the quantum wire project, 
the extraordinary promise that carbon nano-tubes hold for transmitting 
electricity ballistically. There are so many new technologies that we 
have as a Nation great opportunity, great promise to invest in, but 
that's down the road.
  Right now, it is vitally important for our Nation's strategic 
security that we continue to find and develop every natural resource we 
can here in the United States. The Gulf of Mexico, our offshore waters 
has produced so much of this Nation's oil and gas.
  We're joined by our good friend Mr. Scalise from Louisiana; and since 
as the one controlling the time, if I could call on Mr. Scalise to 
verify, as I've heard it, 99.99 percent of the oil produced in the 
offshore waters of the United States has been produced cleanly, safely, 
without an incident, and this is the very first incident of its kind. 
Tragic and catastrophic as it is, it is the very first. It like an 
airplane falling out of a clear blue sky, and you would no more ground 
all aircraft if a plane fell out of the sky for no good reason than you 
would shut down all drilling
  And I would like to ask Mr. Scalise to join us and talk about the 
safety record of producing oil and gas safely and cleanly in offshore 
waters of the United States.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. I would like to yield to the gentleman from 
Louisiana who has been a leader on this effort both in trying to compel 
the Federal Government's response to local and State communities and to 
keep and protect their beaches and marshes but also to try to stop our 
energy jobs, our families in the gulf area that have been hurt from 
being hurt further.
  I yield to Congressman Scalise.
  Mr. SCALISE. I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding. I thank 
both of my colleagues for talking about this important issue because 
right now as we're battling what is already a human tragedy with eleven 
deaths, an environmental tragedy, probably the worst in the country's 
history, we're trying to battle to keep the oil out of our marsh and 
our seafood beds and the estuaries where the pelicans nest. We're also 
now fighting a new battle and that's an economic battle against this 
moratorium on all energy exploration in not only deep water but shallow 
water, which is going on.
  So what we've been trying to point out is that, in fact, if you look 
at the safety recommendations that were made by the President's own 
scientific panel right after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, 
the President assembled a team of scientists, engineers, experts that 
he picked--we didn't pick, he picked--to come back with a 30-day safety 
report, report on how to improve safety on the rigs and recommendations 
on drilling.
  In fact, they came back with those recommendations. The interesting 
part was that many of the recommendations that they came back with are 
things that are already being implemented out there in the gulf by 
companies who have a safety record that is much different than BP, 
companies that have been in even deeper water. The Deepwater Horizon 
was in 5,000 feet below the surface. There are companies drilling in 
10,000 feet that haven't had any problems because they do follow a 
different set of safety standards. In fact, they have a very high bar 
for safety.
  As you were talking about, over 2,500 wells have been drilled in the 
deep water, many more, over 50,000 all across the gulf, but over 2,500 
wells in the deep water, and yet this is the first time you've had an 
incident like this. And it's because the companies that are out there, 
unlike BP, have a different safety approach and haven't cut corners and 
haven't done the things that led to this disaster.
  So as we're trying to find out what went wrong, we already know many 
of the things that went wrong and what needs to be done to stop it from 
happening again, not by reinventing the wheel, but actually going and 
looking at those companies who are already doing it the right way.
  And, in fact, that's what the President's group of scientists came 
back with in their safety report. So we embrace those safety changes 
that were recommended that most of the industry is already using; but 
another thing that the President's commission said was the majority of 
those members said they oppose this moratorium on drilling, and they 
did it for a number of reasons, but one of the things they point out 
that's been interesting and hasn't been talked about in this whole 
debate is, it's not just all the loss of jobs, because there's a 
tremendous loss of jobs, over 40,000 good, high-paying jobs in 
Louisiana alone, and I know in Texas it's an even bigger number.
  But they point out, the scientists the President appointed said that 
it would actually reduce safety in the Gulf of Mexico by having a 
moratorium. Whereas, the Secretary of the Interior tries to call it a 
pause, he says, we'll just do a 6-month pause, and if there's some 
magical pause button you can press and then take your hand off 6-months 
later and the industry magically reappears. The industry will not 
magically reappear.
  What's already happening today is companies are leaving the Gulf of 
Mexico to go to foreign countries: Brazil, West Africa, many other 
nations that are competing for these very scarce resources. You have 33 
deep water rigs, many of these are assets of half a billion to a 
billion dollars each, and their operating costs are half a million 
dollars a day to a million dollars a day. They can't just afford to sit 
idle.
  So what they're doing is they are starting to lay off employees, 
starting to move to foreign countries, and what that does, number one, 
it makes our country less safe because it reduces America's energy 
independence. Our demand for oil in this country hasn't dropped, and I 
want to support all the alternatives in wind and solar and nuclear, 
everything, all of the above, but in the meantime our demand in this 
country hasn't dropped for oil. And so as we reduce the supply by maybe 
20 percent, that means we're importing more oil from foreign countries 
who don't like us.
  And how does that oil get here? It doesn't magically appear. It has 
to come in from supertankers and these big barges that bring in the 
oil, and 70 percent of all spills of oil come from tankers, not from 
the drilling. So you have actually increased the likelihood of spills.
  But the other side of that is why you also reduce safety is your most 
experienced crews, your most safe and technologically advanced rigs are 
the ones that leave first. So you lose your rigs, you lose the 
experience of those 10- to 20-year employees, people that understand 
drilling better than anybody in the world. They're not going to sit 
around idle for 6 months collecting unemployment as the President 
suggested. They're going to go find work somewhere else, maybe they're 
going to go to these other countries and so we lose all of that 
experience. And if you then 6 months later remove your hand from some 
mysterious pause button, you don't have an industry left and we don't 
have any experience left; and if you start drilling, you're doing it 
with people without experience, without those new rigs.

  So it poses tremendous damage, not only economically for the jobs 
lost, but it also poses safety challenges and safety problems by having 
this pause, as the President calls it, on drilling. It's a horrible 
policy. It is making our country less energy secure, and it's creating 
a bigger dependence on Middle Eastern oil
  Mr. CULBERSON. If I could, I want to visit with you because you are 
so knowledgeable about this. The States of Louisiana and Texas, as you 
know, have played such a vital role in producing oil and gas offshore.

[[Page H5663]]

  You serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and I wanted to ask, 
isn't it true that the committee, your committee, other committees of 
Congress, have come to no conclusion as to the cause of this accident, 
and even though we don't know what caused it yet, the President's 
imposed a blanket moratorium, shutting down all drilling; is that 
correct?
  Mr. SCALISE. It's correct that there is not a final report. There are 
a lot of groups out there doing investigations. The Federal Government 
is, private institutions are, a lot of different investigations are 
going on as there should be. But we know many of the things that caused 
the problems on that rig on the Transocean-BP Horizon, and in fact, 
they were preventable. And that's the sad part of this is that this was 
a preventable disaster; and if you look at what the companies do that 
are in deeper waters, that don't have the safety problems BP had, it's 
because they do things the right way, a much safer way, and that's what 
we should be following.
  We should go and look to what the President's own safety commission 
came back with. Unfortunately, the President, when he got that 30-day 
report back from his scientists and engineers, it didn't give him I 
guess the results he wanted. It didn't suggest a moratorium, and he 
just wanted to do one anyway. So he threw away the science and trumped 
science with politics, and that's a sad state of affairs for our 
country to be in where we're ignoring science that actually recommends 
the right way to go for safety, and the President chose a path for a 
less safe approach that actually throws jobs away and makes our country 
more dependent on Middle Eastern oil.
  Mr. CULBERSON. Which his own commissioned opposed and which flies in 
the face of the record, tremendous record of safety and cleanliness of 
producing oil and gas offshore in the gulf. Again 99.99 percent of all 
the oil and gas produced in offshore waters of the United States have 
been produced cleanly, safely, even during giant hurricanes, when there 
were underwater landslides in the gulf. In particular, I remember 
Hurricane Ivan, which caused underwater landslides and severed oil 
pipelines underneath the Gulf of Mexico. There were no leaks. They have 
got a tremendous record of safety because they follow guidelines. All 
of these rigs as a rule follow the guidelines of the IPAA. The 
Independent Petroleum Association of America has safety guidelines that 
are followed by offshore drilling rigs.

                              {time}  1540

  They have got a tremendous record of safety. I am not sure of any 
other energy industry that has got a better safety record than the oil 
and gas industry, other than perhaps the nuclear industry. This 
catastrophic tragic accident is one we need to obviously make sure 
doesn't happen again, but not in such a blanket, destructive way.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, this moratorium's impact on our economy is 
greater than most imagined. It is not just along the Gulf Coast. But 
imagine, if you will, you have at this point both the 33 deepwater rigs 
that are now idle, leaving America, along with our American workers and 
our American vendors, but in the shallow waters, which has even a more 
sterling record of safe and secure exploration, which now is also idle 
because the Interior Department is not providing permitting in any 
timely fashion at all. So those rigs are going away, those workers are 
going away, and that impact is deep.
  On any one of those deepwater rigs, you have got at least 1,500 
workers tied directly to the rig, Congressman Culberson, and more 
beyond that. Each rig may have 1,000 vendors supplying and servicing 
it, vendors throughout the United States. I am going to talk about that 
in a few moments with a map we have here on the floor as well.
  These companies are not the big companies. These are family-owned 
businesses, small and medium-sized businesses. They are already 
starting to lay off workers. They are already redeploying, as I think 
Halliburton and Schlumberger, or Halliburton Baker Hughes said they 
have already been forced to relocate some 4,000 jobs. And offshore 
development impacts at least 170,000 jobs, all of which are at risk 
with this moratorium.
  As small businesses have told us, who said, I have already laid off 
20 percent of my workforce. Next week I lay off 50 percent of my 
workforce. What small business in America, what industry, can hope to 
survive without six months of its revenues?
  Mr. CULBERSON. That is a key point.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. The answer is none. Maybe the big guys can, but 
most companies cannot. So at a time when we have almost 10 percent 
unemployment, people are desperately looking for work, here we have a 
White House policy that puts at risk 150,000 good-paying American jobs 
or more that will impact every State in the Nation.
  By the way, Congressman Culberson, there have been studies that talk 
about what the impact is in various areas. If you think about it, the 
average salary in the Gulf of Mexico for petroleum-related workers is 
almost $118,000, average annual salary. Some of those are roughnecks, 
those who may not even have a high school education, who are getting 
$70,000, $80,000 salaries. It is a tough job. It is hard work. But it 
not only produces fuel to drive America's prosperity, but it gives them 
an opportunity to raise their family, to live the American dream, to 
put their kids through college, to own their own home. Those jobs are 
now at risk.
  And who is fighting for them? It seems to me the White House, so far, 
and I hope it changes, has a deaf ear to these American workers. These 
are U.S. energy workers. There are more than 2 million of them around 
America. But with this moratorium, as the rigs leave, as the jobs go, 
as our vendors and small businesses go as well, many of those are not 
coming back for years. And with it goes the capital, the funding from 
companies who have to decide soon whether they put money into exploring 
in the Gulf of Mexico or over in Brazil or West Africa or somewhere 
else around the world.
  Also with the rigs and capital and jobs goes our brain power. We 
worry about a brain drain of America's best and brightest, energy 
research and workers that will go. And then ultimately when that 
leaves, the energy headquarters leave as well, which in many 
communities along the Gulf of Mexico, make up such a big part, good-
paying part of our economy.
  So this moratorium, the refusal to allow permits, sort of the tin ear 
on allowing these safe wells to go back to work, is having a 
devastating impact.
  I have invited, and I know you support this, I have invited President 
Obama to come to Houston, Texas, to meet with our energy workers, those 
whose jobs have been lost or are at risk. Just as he has visited every 
State along the Gulf, come to Texas to see the economic spill of his 
policy, the economic devastation that is beginning, and can be changed 
and can be averted, not by stopping a well from gushing, but by 
stopping bad policy, overly broad, that costs U.S. American jobs 
throughout the country, raises energy prices, makes us more dependent 
on countries that frankly don't care much for us.
  I yield to you, congressman.
  Mr. CULBERSON. Congressman Brady, I know you have seen, as I have, 
these countries where these rigs are going overseas. The companies 
themselves also have got high standards. They are going to maintain a 
safe, clean environment for their workers and produce oil as safely and 
cleanly as they can.
  But common sense tells you, where are they going to have better, 
cleaner standards for producing oil and gas: In Indonesia, or off the 
coast of Louisiana and Texas? Where are the standards going to be 
better to protect the environment: Here in the United States or in a 
Third World nation where they are not as concerned with protecting the 
environment as we are here in America?
  I had a chance to work on offshore rigs in the summers in college as 
what is called a mudlogger, sort of a well-side geologist. It was great 
work. These are great jobs. I had a chance to experience it firsthand 
and see the level of commitment of these men and now women that work on 
the rigs and in the offshore industry that know better than anybody how 
to make sure a well doesn't blow out.
  No one has a greater stake in protecting the safety of their workers, 
in

[[Page H5664]]

protecting the environment, in producing oil and gas safely and 
cleanly, than the companies themselves. The liability that they are 
exposed to is immense. They care deeply about the safety of their 
workers.
  The rigs that I worked on offshore were both jack-up rigs and 
semisubmersible rigs. And this was in the late 1970s and 1980s, right 
before the bottom dropped out and oil got so cheap and a lot of the 
service companies disappeared because of the price of oil declining so 
rapidly. But the technology today is so amazing that we are enabled to 
drill at the depths that the Deepwater Horizon was drilling in, 
Congressman Brady.
  I have to wonder as a conservative, as a Texan, watching this 
administration not let any crisis go to waste, and remembering, as I 
do, Congressman Brady, when last summer or the summer before the last 
election, that Speaker Pelosi and this liberal majority had shut down 
all offshore drilling in the United States.
  And you remember when the Congress adjourned in the summer of 2008, 
Kevin, I remember you coming on to the House floor with your suitcase. 
Remember we stayed down here and kept talking to force the Speaker and 
this liberal majority to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. We 
stayed down here and talked to the gallery. We used our social media 
devices to talk to the country on Twitter and Facebook and Quick.
  The country responded. The Nation supports, the Nation understands 
the importance of producing American oil and gas. The country supports 
drilling in offshore waters, continues to support drilling in the 
offshore waters of its United States. Despite this 
catastrophic, terrible accident, the Nation understands that this is an 
anomaly, that this is something that does not happen, it has not 
happened in all the many years that we have been producing oil and gas 
in the offshore waters of the United States.

  And that last summer, that August of 2008, Congressman Brady, when 
the House had adjourned and we stayed down here and kept talking, 
ultimately we forced the leadership of the House to reverse its 
position and withdraw temporarily their ban on offshore drilling. Yet 
as soon as this administration actually gets back in place and the 
first chance they get when they have a catastrophic accident offshore, 
what do they do, in opposition to the recommendation of their own 
commission? Without knowing the exact cause of the accident, they 
impose a blanket moratorium, stopping all drilling.
  It literally is as though you stop all airplane flights when a DC-10 
falls out of the air in the clear blue sky, a catastrophic, terrible 
accident. But it is a particular type of aircraft, and you would want 
to find out what caused that particular type of aircraft to fall out of 
the sky.
  Instead, this administration's knee-jerk reaction, taking advantage 
of this crisis I believe to achieve their bigger, their long-term goal 
as liberals to shut off as much domestic oil and gas production and 
exploration as they can, they have imposed this moratorium, so 
destructive, so shortsighted, so damaging, not only to the economy of 
the Gulf Coast States, Congressman Brady, but to the Nation, driving up 
the price of oil and gas, driving up the price of gasoline, driving 
American jobs overseas, driving these rigs overseas where the wells 
will be drilled in areas of the world where they do not have the 
concern, they do not have the restrictions on protecting the 
environment that we do here in the United States.

                              {time}  1550

  The liberals are so obsessed with stopping all drilling in the United 
States I believe, that's where this moratorium comes from, and we, the 
American people, understand how shortsighted and how destructive it is.
  In fact, one other aspect that we need to be sure to educate people 
about, Madam Speaker, as a part of the overall policy of this Congress, 
this liberal majority in Congress, that we talked about earlier today, 
Congressman Brady, is the effort of this Congress to prohibit 
fracturing of formations. There is this general direction of the Obama 
administration, under the Obama-Pelosi regime, to shut down as much 
domestic oil and gas production and exploration as they can. They even 
want to make it illegal to fracture formations, which would devastate 
the production of natural gas in the United States.
  In fact, Congressman Brady, I see here on the USGS Web site, when you 
look up how much recoverable oil is available in North Dakota and 
Montana's Bakken Formation, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 
the Bakken Formation has an estimated 3 to 4 billion barrels, quoting, 
of undiscovered technically recoverable oil in an area known as the 
Bakken Formation. Yet if this majority has its way, they would prohibit 
fracturing thousands of feet deep, far below any fresh drinking water, 
fracturing those formations and allowing us to get access to that 
recoverable oil and gas.
  This moratorium on offshore drilling is devastating to the gulf, 
damaging to the Nation, but part of what I see, a larger pattern of 
behavior by this administration, by this Congress, until we can replace 
them come January, to shut down all domestic oil and gas exploration.
  Is that consistent with what you are seeing and hearing?
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. The cost of the drilling moratorium in human 
lives and jobs, the impact on people's lives and families, is 
devastating. We face other immediate threats to America's energy future 
within the next several weeks: The Blowout Prevention Act, through the 
efforts of Congressman Joe Barton and others, working with Congressman 
Henry Waxman and others, I think has become a more manageable or 
acceptable bill. A real concern still exists. The Oil Spill 
Accountability Act, which will stop exploration in America's gulf; 
energy taxes that will force, or really drive U.S. energy jobs to other 
countries. All of this will have a huge impact.
  Can I talk for a moment, though, about the lives that are already 
being affected? We know that the lives of those 11 workers that have 
been lost, praying for their families and their recovery are a top 
priority for us. Stopping that spill from gushing further. Protecting 
the beaches and marshes and seabeds and trying to help the gulf States 
communities recover have to be our priority. The question is, do we 
make it worse for the gulf by a moratorium? The answer is yes.
  Here is the impact on jobs. Just in the short time the moratorium has 
been in place, I talked about how companies are redeploying thousands 
of workers to other countries. As National Oceans Industry Association 
Chairman Burt Adams said, ``There is right now no clear path for 
deepwater exploration companies to follow. Until such a path exists, 
exploration is at a standstill and more jobs will be lost.''
  Aker Solutions has workers in Texas now; in Alabama. They have had to 
refocus their efforts on international projects to compensate for the 
loss of exploring in the moratorium. Their offshore services work is 
coming to a halt already. They have about 750 employees in Texas and 
Alabama, but they are now going elsewhere with their work.
  ATP Oil & Gas Corporation, the moratorium caused this company to stop 
drilling a natural gas development well and release the rig. It went 
away. The well would have produced 40 million cubic feet of gas daily 
for America. ATP estimates that they will be penalized about $30 
million because of the moratorium and lose over $1 million of revenue a 
day.
  Bollinger Shipyards, family-owned and operated since 1946, employs 
3,000 American workers. They say, ``In the 64 years of our existence, 
we have never been faced with such an uncertain future. This moratorium 
has created an environment leaving Bollinger Shipyards no choice but to 
downsize our company, thereby eliminating good-paying jobs.''
  Mr. CULBERSON. Where are they located?
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. They are in Texas, I believe. It doesn't say so 
right there, I should say.
  CapRock Communications. They will be forced to redeploy personnel to 
different regions or support them finding some other way. They have 
over 50 field service and operations personnel supporting clients in 
the Gulf of Mexico; employ 750 people throughout Houston, Lafayette and 
New Orleans.
  C&C Technologies, they expect to layoff approximately 10 employees to 
begin with; will not be hiring the dozen

[[Page H5665]]

or so workers they expected to hire. So they're laying off workers and 
we're missing an opportunity to put even more people back to work.
  Cobalt International Energy with their exploration, their drilling 
rigs, services, vessels, tools and people that were contracted to 
support the drilling programs, all have been released. We talked about 
the rigs go, the jobs go, the businesses go and the capital leaves 
America. Cobalt will shift its capital spending program and resources 
to West Africa, because they have no choice. This White House, this 
government, is forcing them overseas. Again, as you pointed out, those 
are not only U.S. energy workers but U.S. energy that's leaving with 
Cobalt.
  Davis-Lynch, Incorporated has locations throughout Lafayette, 
Houston, Corpus Christi. This moratorium leaves them no alternative 
other than to implement another reduction in their workforce. They 
employed over 300 people last year, had to cut 100, were starting to 
hire people back. Now that is being reversed.
  Delmar Systems, operations 100 percent directly related to this, to 
the deepwater semi-submersibles in the Gulf of Mexico. It will directly 
affect their ability to operate.
  Heerema Marine Contractors, their business future is in a state of 
uncertainty here in the United States. They employ people in Texas and 
Louisiana.
  I will go on and on here a little later, but the point is these are 
real American workers. These are real American businesses. Some family-
owned, some mid-size, some larger. But the economic devastation. I 
sometimes wonder, are people as important as turtles and birds? We all 
love our wildlife and are fighting to protect them, but shouldn't we be 
fighting to protect American workers and their livelihoods? How about 
American small businesses and their livelihoods? What about their 
ability to survive, to employ workers? How about an energy worker who 
had nothing to do with the BP spill, who no longer has a job, no longer 
has a future, can't put their kids through college? Mr. President, 
don't those workers count, too? And why won't you come to Texas and 
meet with them? Why won't you pay as much attention to them as you do 
other regions and wildlife? These lives and their livelihoods are at 
stake. They are already paying a price. They didn't ask for this. The 
energy industry did not cause this spill. British Petroleum experienced 
this spill. We ought not punish innocent American workers, communities, 
our future, force higher energy prices, become more dependent on some 
of America's worst enemies because of a terrible policy response, 
moratorium, to what has been an environmental and human tragedy of our 
own making now, an economic disaster of this government's own making.
  I would yield.
  Mr. CULBERSON. Congressman Brady, I couldn't agree with you more. 
That is so well said. But I wanted to also make the point, Madam 
Speaker, make sure all Americans listening understand, Congressman 
Brady, that this moratorium is not just shutting down deepwater 
drilling. All of the companies that we have visited with, all of the 
industries that are involved with drilling and producing, finding, 
drilling, producing oil and gas in the offshore waters of the United 
States are telling us that this moratorium has had the effect of 
shutting down and stopping all permitting in shallow as well as deep 
water.
  Isn't that correct, Congressman Brady? Talk a little bit about that.

                              {time}  1600

  Mr. BRADY of Texas. It is. Well, because they're not permitting. As 
you know, initially, the moratorium, over the advice of a number of 
scientists, was extended to both the shallow and deep waters. And then 
it was lifted in the shallow waters. But no permitting has really--no 
permit of significance has occurred. So those rigs are idle and going 
away.
  Now the whole moratorium was stayed by the Federal courts and the new 
moratorium now was put in place. Shallow and deep waters are 
essentially shut down. And, again, what that means to the rest of 
America is that workers' jobs are shut down, the ability to provide 
energy supplies for America is shut down, and our dependence on other 
countries for our daily energy needs is increased every day because of 
our wrong-headed government policy.
  Mr. CULBERSON. The Obama administration has therefore shut down, 
Congressman Brady, all offshore permitting, all offshore drilling in 
all the continental waters of the United States. That's essentially 
where we are.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. It is. There is very little activity at all going 
on.
  Mr. CULBERSON. Imagine if you are, Mr. Speaker, a business owner, a 
banker, someone who wants and needs and is prepared to make a 
significant investment because these are tremendously expensive 
operations to drill in either shallow--or in the deep water they're 
even more expensive--imagine you want to make that investment but 
you're, A, not sure is the permit deep or shallow. Well, it has now 
been rewritten by the Obama administration, attempting to circumvent 
the Federal court's order stopping the moratorium. The administration 
has simply rewritten their moratorium to bypass the court order.
  So if you as a company are trying to make this significant 
investment, significant amount of money, you have no way of knowing 
when or if permits are ever going to be issued, what type of permits 
are possibly ever going to be issued. They're just going to leave. The 
money, as Congressman Brady has said so eloquently, will go overseas. 
The rigs, the equipment, the jobs, the talent, the skilled American 
jobs that have worked; people in families generation after generation 
that have worked in the offshore oil industry in the United States will 
just leave. They're gone.
  Again, I know this firsthand. I've met these men and women. I know 
how committed they are to finding and producing oil and gas cleanly and 
safely. And no one has got a bigger stake than they do.
  Mr. RANGEL. Might I ask my colleague from Texas whether he could 
yield to me 5 minutes for the purposes of making a statement?
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I will kindly yield to the gentleman 
from New York.
  Mr. RANGEL. I can't thank you enough, Congressman, for this courtesy 
that you've extended, especially in view of the great contribution that 
you make on the committee and in the Congress. And I want to thank you 
for bringing to attention of the American people the sacrifices that so 
many are making as a result of the incident that's taking place in the 
Gulf.
  But, Mr. Speaker, I rise to alert the House that, once again, I have 
introduced legislation to reinstate the draft and to make it permanent 
during time of war. It is H.R. 5741. And what this does is to make 
everyone between the ages of 18 and 42, whether they're men or women, 
whether they're straight or gay, to have the opportunity to defend this 
great country whenever the President truly believes that our national 
security is threatened.
  During the last few weeks and months, as we have gone through a heat 
wave in the Northeast, I could not but think of the tens of thousands 
of Americans that find themselves in the Middle East just hoping and 
praying that the extent of their inconvenience and suffering was just 
being in the heat of being back home with their loved ones. And they 
are so dedicated and there are so few of them that many of them have 
gone back into combat once, twice, even up to six times. To me, that's 
asking a whole lot from such a small part of our population. And I 
truly believe that if people thought for one minute that our Nation was 
in trouble, that age would not even be a factor in people saying, Count 
me in, because this great country has been so good to me that whatever 
we can do, we want to be able to make some type of sacrifice.
  And it just seems to me that when Presidents come and say that in 
their opinion the country has to go or should go, or makes a request to 
go to war, then ultimately it will be the people of this House and the 
Senate that will determine whether or not this request is going to be 
fulfilled. To me, if you're not prepared to put Americans and your kids 
and grandkids in harm's way, then you have reached a conclusion that 
the President is wrong and we should not enter this type of a war. If, 
on the other hand, I am thoroughly

[[Page H5666]]

convinced that when the American people are persuaded that our great 
democracy is in danger, that we would not want just a select group of 
people to be pulled out to over and over and over again put themselves 
in harm's way.
  And so I know the tragedies that have occurred when there's been so 
many exceptions to the drafts in the past. And for that reason it was 
not found to be favorable to the average citizen; that if you were in 
college, if you came from a background, you were excluded from the 
draft. Well, this is not involved in this in any way. The only 
exclusions would be those who have mental or physical handicaps or 
conscientious objectors. Of course, if you're not needed, since it 
would be an overwhelming number of troops that would be available, then 
you could in national service be able to provide something in line for 
the American security.
  And so I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for allowing me to 
interrupt this very informative and educated discussion of the impact 
of moratoriums and to thank him again for the contribution you make not 
only to Congress but specifically the Ways and Means Committee.
  I yield back any time that I may have.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Thank you to the gentleman from New York. I 
appreciate that very much.
  Joining us today on this very important topic as we look at the 
devastating impact of this drilling moratorium on American jobs and 
energy workers is a Congressman from Humble, Texas, who has taken a 
lead on a number of key national security interests, especially the 
border, but lives in a community that's adversely affected.
  I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe).
  Mr. POE of Texas. I thank the gentleman for yielding. We all 
represent an area of the State of Texas that is dramatically impacted 
by the oil and gas industry. And having a district on the Gulf Coast 
representing about 20 percent of the Nation's oil refineries, this is 
an especially serious incident that has occurred offshore, this BP 
Deepwater Horizon disaster. No question about it, this problem, this 
accident has to be solved. I understand within the last hour that the 
cap that has now been placed on the well by BP is apparently working. 
Hopefully, it will be working long enough for them to finish drilling 
the other two wells to solve this problem.
  And we always must be mindful of the people that were killed in this 
tragedy, plus the tremendous damage it has done to certain parts of our 
environment. But we cannot allow this accident to be an overreaction. 
And I think the Federal Government has overreacted in this situation.

                              {time}  1610

  The deep water in the Gulf of Mexico provides 17.3 percent of the 
Nation's domestic crude oil, and the Federal Government now has said, 
No more deepwater drilling until 6 months or when we get back with you. 
Now, no industry, whether it's a doughnut shop or the oil and gas 
industry or anybody else, can be shut down for 6 months by the Federal 
Government and expect to survive.
  And these deepwater rigs are not cheap endeavors. They cost $500,000 
a day to drill in the deep water. They're not going to wait 6 months 
for the Federal Government to make its decision whether they can 
continue to drill or not. That's why some of them have already left the 
deep water and gone to friendlier waters where those governments aren't 
quite as oppressive and prevent deepwater drilling.
  Those people who work offshore in the deep water now are unemployed 
thanks to the Federal Government. It's an overreaction. Now, all of a 
sudden, 17.3 percent of the Nation's crude oil is gone out of the deep 
water. To make up for just what is now going to be eliminated in the 
deep water, it will take 300 tankers a year coming in from those 
countries in the Middle East to supply or resupply just the difference 
in the crude oil that we will not obtain from the deep water. And of 
course those tankers, some of them have had problems of containing that 
crude oil that is coming all the way from the Middle East. Once again, 
now we are paying and sending American money overseas, sending jobs 
somewhere off the coast of Brazil, Africa, and Egypt, and yet it is, in 
my opinion, an overreaction.
  I will give you an example. In 2005, in Texas City, Texas, very near 
our districts, we had a BP explosion at a refinery. People were killed. 
In fact, more people were killed then and injured than in this 
explosion offshore, but we didn't close all of the refineries in the 
United States. We closed BP's refinery until we found out what the 
problem was and made sure that they were held accountable for what they 
did. But we didn't overreact.
  I got a letter from a Cajun fellow, a real mad Cajun, from Houma, 
Louisiana. The Cajun community, as you know, Mr. Brady, they border our 
State. We have a lot of Cajuns in our southeast Texas. They come from 
Louisiana and ours go over there. Anyway, a lot of them work in the oil 
and gas industry. I want to read a portion of his letter. He wrote it 
to the President, but I got a copy of it as well. He runs an offshore 
drilling related business, and here's what he says.
  ``I am terribly troubled that after striving to find jobs for 
Americans, you make a hasty decision to stop drilling for 6 months. Did 
you stop coal mining after all the incidents they have been having? No. 
Did you stop the airlines after all the crashes and accidents they have 
been having? No. Did you shut down the mortgage companies, the banks, 
and the auto industry after they stole money from those same Americans 
that invested in them? No. You bailed them out. Now you want to shut 
down the oil industry for 6 months, which will hurt tens of thousands 
of workers! I only hope you understand the trickle-down effect this 
will have on many industries,'' such as for Timmy Bergeron.
  I won't read the rest of the letter. It gets a little more colorful. 
But it's important that we understand these are real people that are 
losing their jobs because of this decision.
  A Federal judge has said that the Federal Government's decision to 
stop or to issue a moratorium to stop deepwater drilling--and I quote 
the Federal judge in issuing an injunction, saying this injunction was 
wrong. The Federal judge said that the government's decision to stop 
deepwater drilling was ``arbitrary,'' it was ``capricious,'' it was 
``unfounded,'' and it was ``punitive''--pretty strong words--because 
the government couldn't show evidence that stopping the deepwater 
drilling was necessary because of the accident with BP.
  So the Federal Government is still suing the Americans, went and 
appealed this decision. A three-judge panel ruled that that decision 
would be upheld. The final decision will be in August. But the Federal 
Government has had its way because continuing to fight Americans in the 
courtrooms, prolonging the ultimate decision that will be made by the 
appellate courts on whether the injunction should be granted to stop 
the Federal Government's moratorium or not, is such a delay that more 
of those deepwater rigs will leave.
  The people are still unemployed. They need jobs. They want to work 
offshore. And most of the people in this country, 73 percent of the 
Nation's population, think we should still continue to drill in the 
deep water, even in spite of this horrible accident, solve this 
problem, and allow Americans to continue to work.
  With that, I yield back to my friend from Texas (Mr. Brady).
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, I appreciate the gentleman from Texas 
talking about that gentleman from Houma and about how frustrating it is 
to see the government ride to the rescue of so many industries and 
companies and unions and special interests, but when it comes to just 
an average U.S. energy worker, they go out of their way to actually 
kill that job or put that person's livelihood or that small business's 
livelihood at risk. People may think, Congressman, that this is just 
one or two States, it doesn't affect us in our community, but nothing 
could be further from the truth.
  The International Association of Drilling Contractors, they surveyed 
a number of members all throughout the country. They surveyed just nine 
of their members, nine drilling contractors and one boat company just 
to ask them, Where are your workers at in America? And just nine 
companies found workers in almost 300 congressional districts 
throughout the United

[[Page H5667]]

States of America. Just these nine companies and one boat company 
reached through almost 70 percent of U.S. congressional districts. It 
didn't include tens of thousands of other workers--oil service 
companies, large and small equipment manufacturers, mom-and-pop 
operations, oil companies. None of that's included. Just these nine 
drilling contractors and a boat company, almost 70 percent of the 
districts in America. You think, well, man, this can't be affecting our 
neighbors, but it is.

  You've got a few examples just from these few companies. You've got 
wire rope from Missouri and Arkansas that is at risk; workers who build 
radiators in Minnesota; steel and pipe in Ohio; workers from fabrics 
and uniform makers in Illinois; those who create protective paints from 
Missouri; machinery for the offshore oil companies from Michigan; 
engines from Illinois; corrosion prevention materials from Illinois and 
Minnesota; Connecticut, workers who make electrical cables; drilling 
equipment from Illinois; pipe protective chemicals from Ohio; drilling 
equipment from Kansas; background checks and security services from 
Wisconsin; safety footwear from Oregon; on and on and on again. These 
are our neighbors whose jobs are at risk, not because BP didn't follow 
standard safety practices but because the White House decided these 
energy jobs weren't worth protecting. They'll bail out the auto unions, 
but they won't lift a finger to protect these jobs.
  These are our people who are researchers and manufacturers. Some of 
them are roughnecks without a high school education who have the one 
job in America that allows them to actually raise their family, live 
the American Dream, and give their kids a college education. And those 
jobs are disappearing as we speak, and they're not going to come back 
any time soon. The companies are going. The rigs aren't coming back. 
The workers aren't coming back. The infrastructure isn't coming back. 
We become more dependent on foreign oil. Our energy prices for every 
American will go up. We'll buy more from companies that detest the 
United States of America.
  That's why we have asked the President, Come to Texas. Come see these 
drilling workers, these energy workers face to face and tell them why 
their jobs aren't important, why their livelihoods don't matter, why 
their small business, family-owned business, it doesn't matter if they 
go away or not. And these people are from all across all walks of 
America.
  I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson).
  Mr. CULBERSON. Congressman Brady, I also want to say that we have 
extended an invitation to the President to come to Houston to meet the 
workers of the Johnson Space Center, where the President's 
administration has attempted to shut down America's manned space 
program, similar, as the administrator even admitted in my 
subcommittee, I asked him, Isn't what the administration is proposing 
on NASA like privatizing the Navy so that we would have to rent an 
aircraft carrier, we'd have to rent spacecraft?
  It looks to me, Congressman Brady, that map you've got down there 
that you're showing us, I see a striking parallel there, Congressman 
Poe, that jobs affected by the President's attempt to shut down the 
manned space program--which, thankfully, Congress has rejected. And I 
want to thank the chairmen of the committees because we are going to 
get legislation to build a heavy-lift vehicle and manned capsule. 
Congress rejected the President's unwise strategy. We need to reject 
this unwise moratorium.

                              {time}  1620

  But looks like the attempt to shut down the manned space program 
affected jobs in those same areas. To shut down the oil and gas 
industry affects jobs in those same areas. The attempt to cap and tax 
energy production in the United States devastating the American energy 
industry affects jobs in those same areas. I think all those areas are 
Republican. Aren't all those States in those areas pretty strongly 
Republicans? Certainly there's no correlation there, is there? Looks to 
me like there might be a pattern.
  As Congressman Brady correctly points out, this administration's 
quick to bail out their buddies in the unions, but slow to protect 
American jobs that enhance this Nation's security, that enhance our 
prosperity. This moratorium is an outrage and we need to stop it. I 
thank you, Congressman Brady, for giving us this time on the floor to 
talk about it.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, thank you to the gentleman from Houston.
  I'd like to turn to the gentleman from Humble. You're seeing this. 
You have communities that stretch from the suburbs of Houston over to 
southeast Texas, which has some of the highest unemployment rates in 
the State of Texas. These are the workers tied to these companies. You 
know them. You visited with them. You've had town hall meetings; 
they're neighbors.
  Can you describe how disheartening this is for these workers who had 
nothing to do with the spill to have their jobs at risk and their 
livelihoods at risk?
  Mr. POE of Texas. I thank the gentleman for yielding. As you know, 
Mr. Brady, Port Arthur, especially Port Arthur, Texas, is a refinery 
town; but it has high unemployment. The whole area has high 
unemployment for a lot of reasons. One reason, of course, is we've been 
hit by numerous hurricanes. Just since I've been in office, we've had 
Katrina, Rita, Hubert, Gustav and Ike all come through my congressional 
district and your congressional district. Because of that, it's 
affected the economy. And now these workers are trying to get back to 
work. Many of them work offshore, and then they work onshore in oil-
related industries.
  But the effect of the shutdown in the deep water causes economic 
hardship, not just on the workers on those platforms, but for the 
people on shore that supply parts and maintenance and other industries, 
other commodities to those people who work offshore. And so we don't 
know yet how many thousands or hundreds of thousands of jobs would be 
lost because of this.
  But one thing that we also need to understand is the loss of energy, 
the lack of having crude oil that we were producing in the deep water; 
17 percent of the Nation's domestic crude oil production comes from 
deep water. That is now going to be gone, and we'll have to make that 
up some other way. So we should expect gasoline prices to rise, 
probably in 2 years, maybe less because of that.
  And I think it's imperative that we understand that the folks that 
are affected want to continue to work. They want to continue to work 
offshore. They want to continue to work safely. And they don't want the 
Federal Government putting them out of work. And that's exactly what 
happened. The Federal Government has shut them down, has sent their 
jobs overseas.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, if the gentleman would yield, can we talk a 
little more about how the loss of energy in America from this 
moratorium drives up fuel prices, makes us more dependent? Because I 
don't think most people realize, as you said, the Gulf of Mexico is a 
key generator of oil and natural gas for America. But it actually is 
very key to keeping OPEC from controlling energy prices throughout the 
world.
  OPEC controls about 40 percent of the world's oil supply. And what 
happens is, when what we need as the world gets to about within 2 to 3 
percent of everything that's produced, OPEC then has amazing leverage 
to drive those prices up for American families and workers. The Gulf of 
Mexico is our relief valve. That's where we produce energy and gas here 
in America. But because we have that producing, OPEC doesn't have the 
leverage that it historically has.
  But with this moratorium, as you said, the energy supply isn't today. 
The shortage is in 2011 and 2012, which we know from the last time. 
When energy went to $4 a gallon, we saw the devastating impact on 
American energy, American prosperity, our economy and jobs. Man, the 
average families and small businesses just suffered. We're going to see 
more of that in the future.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Will the gentleman yield?
  That's exactly what will occur is not only energy costs, but we also 
must remember that this deepwater drilling and the crude oil that comes 
from the deep water produces millions of other products besides just 
fuel. All of the plastics, many of our technology comes

[[Page H5668]]

from some base of crude oil. And all of that is affected, and the costs 
of all those items that are produced in our refineries and 
petrochemical plants will be affected because of this arbitrary, 
capricious, and punitive decision to just stop deepwater drilling.
  I would hope the administration would re-evaluate their position, 
quit suing Americans, get out of the courtroom and get down on the Gulf 
of Mexico and fix this problem and let people go back to work.
  I yield back.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. I appreciate the gentleman from Humble and his 
remarks that are right on target. I have some closing remarks, but I'd 
like the gentleman from Houston to conclude.
  Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Brady, I just want to join you and Congressman Poe 
in inviting the President to come to Houston. Come meet, firsthand, 
these people, these fine men and women who are so committed to finding 
and producing American oil and gas cleanly and safely. These are our 
neighbors and friends, Congressman Brady and Congressman Poe, who we 
live with, alongside, have picnics with. These are good people. We all 
know how committed they are to this Nation and to finding American oil 
and gas cleanly and safely.
  Come to Houston, President Obama. Meet them firsthand. See how much 
pride they take in their work, how much pride they take in their 
country, and how valuable and important their role is in this Nation's 
economy.
  I yield back.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, thank you.
  And in conclusion, let me just say, these are not Republican workers. 
These aren't Democrat workers, these aren't Libertarian workers, these 
aren't tea party workers. They're just American workers. These are 
their jobs. These are their hopes, their dreams, and they didn't do 
anything wrong. They've paid for the bailouts of other industries. 
They're not asking for that. They just want to go back to work on the 
rig that's been safe.
  Historically, these energy workers, 50,000 wells in the gulf, this is 
the first accident. It wasn't their fault. You don't ground them all 
because of it.
  Yet, their lives are at stake. And our energy prices, our energy 
independence, revenue to our State and Federal Government, small 
businesses who will never survive this moratorium ever if it goes the 
full 6 months, did nothing wrong, whose reach is all throughout the 
United States of America.
  We have a lot at stake here. We are asking Republicans and Democrats 
in Congress to join us in asking the President to end this moratorium. 
Accept, adopt the safe practices, the newest, the safest practices 
proposed by experts in the industry. Allow this safe drilling to go 
forward. Stop sending our rigs overseas. Stop sending our jobs 
overseas. Stop sending our service companies overseas, our capital, our 
best and brightest minds, and ultimately our headquarters.
  Keep America going on the path of energy independence. But don't hurt 
these 2 million workers who are tied to this important industry.
  With that, I appreciate Congressman Culberson, Congressman Poe, being 
here tonight, as well as Congressman Scalise.
  These are jobs. Put our American energy workers back to work.

                          ____________________