[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 56 (Friday, April 15, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E755]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  REMEMBERING THE TRAGIC GULF OIL SPILL AND WORKING TO PREVENT FUTURE 
                                 SPILLS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. C.W. BILL YOUNG

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 15, 2011

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate a 
tragic event. One year ago, next Wednesday, an oil rig explosion in the 
Gulf of Mexico resulted in eleven families losing their loved ones. The 
explosion started what soon became the largest oil spill in United 
States history. It took far too long to stop this spill and the 
environmental and economic impacts will be felt for years to come. 
Twelve months later, Congress has not enacted any legislation to 
address the policy and management issues that contributed to the 
severity of last year's spill. This is unacceptable. We owe it to those 
who perished in the explosion, as well as those whose lives and 
businesses were impacted in the months that followed, to address the 
deficiencies in current federal policy.
  That is why I am reintroducing the SAFEGUARDS Act, legislation I 
drafted last year to prevent and respond to future oil spills. I was 
not surprised that a report by the National Commission on the BP 
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling (Oil Spill 
Commission) highlighted the need for the changes I recommend, as the 
measure was developed following a series of meetings and regular phone 
calls with the on-the-ground incident commanders, local research teams 
and community emergency response personnel. It is my hope that the 
solutions put forth in this measure will be included in a wider 
legislative response to ensure that we impose rigorous safety standards 
on any off-shore platforms, while also establishing a fully thought out 
plan to respond to future disasters.
  As I said last Congress, an uncontrolled discharge of oil is truly a 
worst-case scenario that oil companies and the federal government 
should be required to have an established plan for. While the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has established specific safeguards to 
take into account the effects that drilling has on our environment, BP 
was permitted categorical exclusions from these requirements. No oil 
company should be exempt from addressing the environmental impact that 
their drilling activities impose. The SAFEGUARDS Act will ensure that 
NEPA requirements are not ignored again by, first, prohibiting 
categorical exclusions from NEPA, and second, extending the time period 
regulatory agencies have to review oil explorations proposals. 
Regulatory agencies currently have only a 30-day period to review 
extensive and intricate drilling proposals, however this bill will give 
regulatory agencies up to 150 days to ensure exploration plans are 
properly reviewed.
  Not only was BP granted exemptions from environmental standards, they 
were also allowed to move forward without a prepared response plan for 
the failure of the blowout preventer. As recommended by the Oil Spill 
Commission ``oil spill response plans should be required to include 
detailed plans for source control [which] demonstrate that an 
operator's containment technology is immediately deployable and 
effective.'' The SAFEGUARDS Act would require all oil spill response 
plans to account for a true worst possible scenario, including the 
uncontrolled discharge of oil resulting from the failure of a blowout 
preventer or other containment devices.
  The oil disaster in the Gulf has also brought much attention to the 
leadership and organization of the response and containment efforts 
currently in place. While the Coast Guard is ultimately responsible for 
leading the government's response to an oil spill in America's coastal 
waters, they are not required to approve oil spill response plans 
submitted by oil rigs. Instead, each rig was only required to submit 
their spill response plans to the now disbanded Minerals Management 
Service, an agency with many well-documented problems administering rig 
safety standards. The Oil Spill Commission notes that ``oil spill 
response plans, including source-control measures, should be subject to 
interagency review and approval by the Coast Guard.'' The SAFEGUARDS 
Act will make this a requirement for all current and future oil rigs, 
as well as establish the Commandant of the Coast Guard as the National 
Incident Commander to oversee the federal government's response to 
large oil spills in coastal waters.
  Finally, the SAFEGUARDS Act will address some of the inadequacies in 
federal response efforts highlighted by last year's spill. The 
framework of the National Contingency Plan, which is the federal 
government response plan for all oil spills, has not been updated since 
1994. The SAFEGUARDS Act will require the response plan to be updated 
at least every five years and to have unique plans for responding to 
oil spills in our coastal waters. Further, this bill will require the 
EPA to begin monitoring water quality within forty-eight hours after an 
oil spill is discovered. It is important for the public to have 
accurate information about how our water, our wildlife and our beaches 
are being affected as quickly as possible.
  After finally stopping the flow of oil we now need to address the 
systematic breakdowns that led to the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. 
The SAFEGUARDS Act presents commonsense solutions to help prevent a 
disaster of this magnitude from ever happening again, and improves the 
federal response in the event it ever does. Mr. Speaker, I ask my 
colleagues to support this measure. The Congress must get to work on 
oil spill response legislation; we owe it to the American people and 
the entire Gulf Coast.

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