[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 10, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H3120-H3126]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              PUTTING THE GULF OF MEXICO BACK TO WORK ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 245 and rule 
XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House 
on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 1229.

                              {time}  1601


                     In the Committee of the Whole

  Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the 
Whole House on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill 
(H.R. 1229) to amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to 
facilitate the safe and timely production of American energy resources 
from the Gulf of Mexico, with Mr. Womack in the chair.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The CHAIR. Pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered read the 
first time.
  The gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn) and the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Holt) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Colorado.
  Mr. LAMBORN. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Chairman, families and businesses across the country are 
struggling with skyrocketing gasoline prices that in many places have 
already passed $4 per gallon. Everyday activities, such as commuting to 
work or taking the kids to soccer practice, have strained family 
budgets, forcing Americans to make tough choices and sacrifices. 
Unfortunately, rising gasoline prices are not the only energy crisis 
currently hurting our country. For over a year, communities along the 
Gulf of Mexico have suffered through a real and then de facto 
moratorium on offshore drilling imposed by the Obama administration. 
The administration's intentional slow-walking of drilling permits has 
cost 12,000 jobs according to their own estimates. According to 
economist Dr. Joseph Mason, this could cost over 36,000 jobs nationwide 
if businesses and their employees are not allowed to return to work 
soon. Over the past month, the Natural Resources Committee has heard 
from numerous small businesses in Louisiana that have had to lay off 
hundreds of people, eliminate benefits and diminish their savings just 
to try to stay afloat.
  The bill being considered by the House today will help address all of 
these concerns. It will put the people and businesses along the gulf 
back to work by requiring the administration to act on new drilling 
permits in a timely manner. For Americans across the country who are 
suffering from rising gasoline prices, this bill acts now to expand 
American production to help lower costs. H.R. 1229, the Putting the 
Gulf Back to Work Act, sets a firm time line for the Secretary of the 
Interior to act on permits. Let me be very clear. Action does not 
necessarily mean approval. Action simply means that the Secretary must 
make a decision either to approve or to deny a permit. The bill gives 
the Secretary 30 days to act, along with two 15-day extensions. This 
30-day time frame is consistent with the time line for approving 
exploration plans, which are far more complicated. A deadline is 
necessary in order to stop the endless bureaucratic delays and inaction 
that are currently taking place and to provide companies with some 
certainty.
  There are over 50 permitted projects in the Gulf of Mexico that were 
under way when the Obama administration imposed the moratorium in May 
2010. Nearly a year later, over 40 of those same 50 projects have yet 
to resume work. This bill would give the Secretary 30 days to restart 
these projects that have already been approved.
  I want to stress that H.R. 1229 will have an immediate impact on jobs 
and energy production. Each drilling platform supports 800 to 1,400 
jobs. Each permit that is issued translates into several hundred people 
returning to work. In addition, there are production wells just waiting 
for permits to resume work, meaning that more American energy could 
come online within months of a permit being issued. Perhaps most 
importantly, H.R. 1229 also makes significant safety improvements. U.S. 
offshore drilling helps create American energy and American jobs, but 
it must be done in a safe and responsible manner.
  The bill reforms current law by requiring a drilling company to 
obtain a permit to drill from the Secretary. Currently, such a permit 
is not required by law, only by regulation. The bill further reforms 
the law by requiring the Secretary to conduct a safety review. The bill 
ensures that all proposed drilling operations must, quote, meet all 
critical safety system requirements, including blowout prevention, and 
oil spill response and containment requirements.
  Finally, this bill establishes an expedited judicial review process 
for resolving lawsuits relating to gulf permits. This reform ensures 
that ending the de facto moratorium imposed by the Obama administration 
isn't replaced by paralyzing and frivolous lawsuits that could take 
years to resolve.
  What we will see today during the course of this debate are two very 
different approaches to America's energy future. Republicans are 
pursuing an all-of-the-above energy approach to American energy 
production to create jobs, generate revenue, lower gasoline prices, and 
strengthen our national security. The Obama administration and 
congressional Democrats, on the other hand, want to make energy more 
expensive. Their agenda is to raise taxes to make energy production 
more difficult and costly. We saw proof of this last Congress when they 
did everything they could to push through the job-destroying Waxman-
Markey national energy tax. Now they are trying to increase taxes on 
American energy producers.
  While Americans are looking for solutions to lower gasoline prices, 
the Democrats' proposals would increase prices even higher. How in the 
world higher prices and taxes on energy would help Americans at the gas 
pump is beyond me.
  It's time for Congress to take steps to end the economic pain in the 
gulf by allowing people to return to work. It's time to ease the pain 
of high gasoline prices by expanding American energy production. I urge 
my colleagues to support this important legislation to create jobs, to 
lower prices, including the price of gas at the pump, and to strengthen 
our national security.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.
  I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 1229. Need I remind the Members 
of this body that 1 year and 19 days ago, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig 
exploded, killing 11 workers and creating economic and environmental 
havoc. For 87 days following the explosion, more than 4 million barrels 
of oil spewed from the blown-out Macondo well, coating nearly 1,000 
miles of gulf coastline and temporarily closing over 88 square miles of 
some of the Nation's most productive fishing grounds. Yet this Congress 
has not enacted a single legislative reform to improve the safety of 
offshore drilling. Instead, the majority now brings forward in the name 
of spurious claims a bill to encourage more domestic offshore drilling 
without applying the lessons learned from the gulf blowout. With the 
spurious claim that more domestic offshore drilling will lower gas 
prices, they claim that we have to grease the skids, we have to open 
the doors, we have to give further breaks to the oil companies.

                              {time}  1610

  Now, sadly, it seems their motto is ``Ignore the spill. Drill, baby, 
drill.''
  Frankly, the majority's trio of offshore drilling bills were written 
as though the Deepwater Horizon disaster had never occurred. That's why 
I refer to them as the ``amnesia acts.'' Collectively, they will make 
offshore drilling less safe while opening up vast new swaths of our 
coastlines without adding any new safety requirements or environmental 
safeguards on the oil and gas industry.

[[Page H3121]]

  So today we are taking up the second ``amnesia act.'' H.R. 1229 would 
impose artificial and arbitrary deadlines on the Department of the 
Interior to approve permits to drill. Specifically, this legislation 
would require the Department to act on a permit to drill within 30 
days. After 60 days, whether or not--whether or not, let me emphasize 
that--the safety and environmental review has been completed by the 
Interior Department, the drilling application would be deemed approved.
  Need I remind my colleagues, Mr. Chairman, that offshore drilling in 
U.S. waters was determined by the spill commission, the bipartisan, 
independent spill commission, to be four times more deadly than in 
other parts of the world prior to the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. It was 
four times more deadly to drill in the gulf by the same companies than 
to drill, for example, in the North Sea, hardly a comfortable 
environment. Now, under this bill, we could actually have less careful 
oversight and review of offshore drilling than we had before the 
Deepwater Horizon disaster.
  This bill is a dangerous solution in search of a really nonexistent 
problem. Since the implementation of new safety and environmental 
standards in June of last year, the Department has added staff, 
improved its review, and has issued 52 shallow water drilling permits. 
Only six more permits currently are pending. Since the oil industry 
demonstrated the capability to contain a deepwater blowout in mid-
February, we think, the Department has issued permits for 13 new 
deepwater wells. There are only 12 permits in the queue for approval; 
yet the majority is claiming we've got to grease the skids, that we've 
got to remove any impediments for the oil companies, that we have to 
``drill, baby, drill.''
  Ironically, the enactment of H.R. 1229 could halt this progress. This 
bill could hamper new permits being issued or stop new permits 
altogether because the Department might be forced to deny permits if 
the safety and environmental reviews are not completed in the arbitrary 
60 days.
  Moreover, Mr. Chairman, this legislation would issue a blanket 
extension of existing leases. In contrast to this across-the-board 
approach, the Department is working on a case-by-case basis to extend 
existing leases affected by the temporary suspension of new drilling, 
where such action is warranted, not on a blanket basis but on the basis 
of the actual facts, of the actual evidence. H.R. 1229 would give a 
free ride to companies even if their leases are many years from 
expiring.
  With regard to the comment that has been made already in this debate, 
that this is about prices at the gasoline pump, need I remind my 
colleagues--now, this was under the George Bush administration--that in 
2008, the Energy Information Administration said, if all drilling over 
the entire east coast Continental Shelf were opened up, the effect on 
oil prices would be ``insignificant.''
  H.R. 1229 also contains language designed to close the doors of the 
courthouse to citizens who believe that the Federal Government is not 
complying with the law. Imagine that. Citizens who are trying to be 
diligent citizens would not be able to make sure that the law is being 
applied. Citizens from Florida or Alabama would be forced to bring any 
lawsuits regarding energy projects in the Gulf of Mexico to Louisiana 
or Texas courts. In addition, H.R. 1229 contains language that would 
prevent attorneys' fees from being awarded in successful cases--a 
deterrent if I've ever heard of one. These provisions are aimed at 
environmental plaintiffs, but will almost certainly impair the legal 
rights of many other potential plaintiffs, including other oil and gas 
companies.
  In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the principles guiding 
offshore drilling should be smart and safe. If H.R. 1229 is enacted, 
the guiding principles will be fast and loose. This is the wrong 
response to the largest oil spill in U.S. waters. We should not rush to 
allow drilling permits to be deemed approved without the appropriate 
safety and environmental checks. We should not provide blanket 
extensions to existing leases. We should not close the doors of the 
courthouse to American citizens. We should not pass this bill.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to a new member of the 
Natural Resources Committee, a member who is jumping in and making an 
immediate impact on the need for increasing our energy production, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson).
  Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, today we are taking up the Putting 
the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act, which will accomplish two very 
important goals: create jobs and help lower energy costs. It will end 
the Obama administration's de facto drilling moratorium in the gulf in 
a way that is safe, transparent, and responsible.
  A study from Louisiana State University predicted that keeping this 
permitorium in place for 18 months could cause the loss of more than 
36,000 jobs nationwide. We simply can't afford the Obama 
administration's job-killing policies. Rather than putting Americans 
back to work, they're seriously impacting America's energy production. 
The ``March 2011 Short-Term Energy Outlook'' from the Energy 
Information Administration noted that production from the Gulf of 
Mexico is expected to fall by 240,000 barrels per day this year.
  If we're going to become energy secure, we need to increase our 
energy production, not limit it; and we need to commit ourselves to 
developing our own resources. The Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to 
Work Act will help do that.
  Mr. HOLT. I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to a Member who is doing 
an excellent job of pointing out the need for bringing jobs and 
production back online in Louisiana and in the gulf, the gentleman from 
Louisiana (Mr. Fleming).
  Mr. FLEMING. I thank the gentleman for allowing me to speak on this 
important issue, H.R. 1229.
  Mr. Chairman, as you know, it is one of a trifecta of bills that 
we're passing out of the House, once and for all and after 40 years, to 
begin actually putting together a cogent energy policy for this 
country. Now, before I talk about it, I do want to make a couple of 
comments.
  Our President has been saying over and over again that our energy 
production, our oil production is at the highest level it has ever 
been. Ed Markey, the ranking member of the committee said the same 
thing. Mr. Salazar of Interior, Mr. Bromwich just the other day, and 
Ms. Wasserman Schultz said the same thing.
  Why are you saying this?
  Very clearly, right now we are producing oil at a level of 6 million 
barrels a day, down from a high in 1972 of 9 million barrels a day; and 
off the gulf coast, where you claim that production is its highest 
ever, we were down from 1.7 million barrels a day last year to 1.59 
million today, and it will be going down by another 225,000 barrels of 
oil per day by next year.
  For heaven's sake, there's a reason we have a structural increase in 
the cost of our energy. It is, very simply, that we're constraining the 
output of oil. So let's get on it. Let's finally start producing oil in 
this country, and let's become energy independent once and for all.
  Louisiana is being hurt in two ways. Number one, of course, is the 
increasing price of gasoline; but it's also jobs. As the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Johnson) just mentioned, Dr. Joseph Mason from Louisiana 
State University, from my home State, said that we're looking at a loss 
of 36,137 jobs over an 18-month period out of the gulf coast alone. In 
February, Seahawk Drilling, which owned and operated 20 rigs on the 
gulf coast, filed chapter 11 due to the Obama administration's de facto 
moratorium.

                              {time}  1620

  The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. LAMBORN. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
  Mr. FLEMING. I thank the gentleman.
  We have lost 12 rigs so far to such countries as Nigeria, Egypt, the 
Congo, and Brazil, and guess who we just gave $2 billion to drill oil? 
Brazil, of all places. So we gave them the rig, we gave them the money 
so they can drill oil to sell back to us and to put tax money into 
their coffers. For heaven's sake, this is crazy.

[[Page H3122]]

  So in conclusion, I'd like to say today, let's get our Louisiana and 
Texas and other people back to work. Let's invest in our energy across 
this country, and let's get the gas prices down.
  Mr. HOLT. The gentleman used the term ``trifecta.'' It's a curious 
selection of words because, indeed, you could see the oil companies 
right now lining up at the ticket window to cash in their trifecta 
winnings if this goes forward.
  The oil companies are currently sitting on 60 million acres of public 
land onshore and offshore in which they are not producing. The oil 
industry is sitting on more than 11.5 billion barrels of oil, nearly as 
much as they could ever get from drilling up and down the east coast 
and the west coast. This is where they should be directing their 
attention, but instead, where are they directing their attention as 
they bring in profits that for this year looked to be something like 
$100 billion? They are using those profits not to provide more 
resources for the American people but to buy back stock. Exxon, which 
had about a $10 billion profit in the first quarter of this year, just 
the first three months, used most of its money, more than half of it, 
to buy back stock.
  So it is curious that my colleague used the phrase ``trifecta'' 
because, indeed, this is a bonanza, a big winning ticket for the Big 
Oil companies.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Chairman, at this point I would like to yield 1 
minute to a new member of the committee who represents a district right 
on the gulf coast and is passionate about what is happening and not 
happening down there and what should be happening, the gentleman from 
Louisiana (Mr. Landry).
  Mr. LANDRY. Mr. Chairman, my colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle should listen to this story. It's a true life story very well. It 
talks about the face of Big Oil, and I'm going to tell you what it is.
  There's a little community in my district named Coteau Holmes which 
has been around since the Cajuns were kicked out of Acadian and settled 
down into Louisiana. It's a fishing village. There's a gentleman down 
there who graduated high school in 1968 and began to work in the oil 
and gas industry, and for 30 years, he worked in the oil and gas 
industry. He raised two children in that oil and gas industry, never 
asked the government for anything other than to ply his trade.
  The experience he gained in the Gulf of Mexico led him to work on the 
first Deepwater projects in the Gulf of Mexico. He worked for Shell Oil 
and Gas--Big Oil--and guess what. When he retired, he was making in 
excess of $1,750 a day. He put two kids through college.
  The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. LAMBORN. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
  Mr. LANDRY. If this is not the American Dream that my colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle claim to tout so much, what is? This is a 
gentleman who doesn't have a college education. Who actually his 
children were the first generation in his entire family ancestry to 
ever make it to college, and he could not have paid for them to go to 
college if not for the opportunity to drill in the Gulf of Mexico.
  My colleagues should understand that down there we create jobs. We 
create good-paying jobs, not minimum-wage jobs, the type of jobs that 
provide for the American family and allow the American Dream to be a 
reality.
  Mr. HOLT. We are indeed concerned about jobs. For the example that my 
friend from Louisiana gives about someone whose livelihood is at stake, 
I could produce dozens of others, maybe a shrimp fisherman. You know, 
my friends maybe remember the ``Forrest Gump'' movie. They've seen 
those pictures. In fact, my friend from Louisiana probably has been out 
on one of those shrimp boats. Well, they were sitting idle. They were 
sitting idle for weeks and weeks.
  The breeding grounds, the fisheries, were and still are in jeopardy. 
People all over the country are not buying the fish that drank of this 
black gold. In fact, 88,000 square miles, as I said earlier, of 
fisheries were polluted by this tremendous spill, and need I remind my 
colleagues that the coastal communities of the Gulf of Mexico, the 
heart of offshore drilling, that the jobs that are dependent on tourism 
and fishing exceed all the natural resource extraction and mining jobs 
by a factor of five, five times as many jobs dependent on tourism and 
fisheries.
  Yes, we should learn the lesson, rather than hurrying through these 
permits. We should learn the lessons of last year's oil spill and 
protect those jobs.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from 
Arizona, who's a new member of the committee and understands these 
issues well, Mr. Gosar.
  (Mr. GOSAR asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Chairman, the people in my district are hurting. 
Rising gas prices are cutting deep into family budgets. Food prices are 
skyrocketing. Communities that are home to destination locations like 
the Grand Canyon are bracing themselves for fewer summer visitors 
because families simply cannot afford to travel.
  Main Street America can no longer afford inaction from the President 
and his administration, and that is why I stand here today in support 
of H.R. 1229. The bill not only will put thousands of Americans back to 
work, it would increase our production of oil here at home and lower 
the cost of gas.
  It is time we put our country back to work and use our resources here 
at home instead of abroad, and it is time the government makes a 
serious commitment towards energy independence and an all-of-the-above 
approach that America wants.
  Mr. HOLT. I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentlelady from 
Santa Barbara, California (Mrs. Capps), who has experienced firsthand 
the economic cost of oil spills.
  Mrs. CAPPS. I thank my colleague from New Jersey for recognizing me.
  Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 1229. A year ago 
BP's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving 11 
people dead and over 1,000 miles of shoreline oiled. It also left the 
local economy in shambles. The once lucrative fishing and tourism 
businesses were devastated by this spill. Many gulf residents are still 
struggling, and yet the oil industry would have us believe it suffered 
greatly during the temporary moratorium on new drilling. The fact is 
the gulf produced 1.6 million barrels of oil per day last year, an all-
time record, and still the industry is clamoring for more.
  Today, we're considering another bill on their wish list that 
sidesteps safety and environmental safeguards. H.R. 1229 forces this 
administration to unreasonably rush the permitting process for drilling 
activities. These permits are a final review opportunity for the 
Federal Government to ensure that everything is in place before an oil 
company drills deep into our ocean floor, but the majority is using the 
strain of high gas prices to push Americans into thinking that drilling 
is safe and that hurrying these permits will bring down costs.

                              {time}  1630

  It's as if we learned nothing from the BP oil disaster. Mr. Chairman, 
we cannot say drilling is safe when Congress has not taken necessary 
steps to strengthen protections for rig workers and the environment. We 
cannot say drilling is safe when the industry has yet to prove it has 
better means of preventing or cleaning up a spill than we saw that it 
did a year ago, and we cannot say drilling is safe when the government 
lacks the resources it needs to police an industry that for years 
policed itself, to perilous ends.
  While the Obama administration has started acting on the lessons of 
the spill, Michael Bromwich, the head offshore drilling regulator, told 
the New York Times that his agency ``still lacks the resources, 
personnel, training, technology, enforcement tools, regulations, and 
legislation that it needs to do its job properly.''
  Mr. Chairman, we know how to reduce the risk of oil spills. The 
President's oil spill commission laid out a list of recommendations for 
how Congress can prevent another spill from occurring. Many of my 
colleagues have amendments to put those recommendations in place. I 
hope this House will adopt them so we can say that drilling is safer.
  Vote ``no'' on H.R. 1229. Let's not promote reckless drilling that 
will fail to

[[Page H3123]]

lower gas prices and endanger our coastlines. Let's instead strengthen 
safety and environmental safeguards for offshore drilling and support a 
quicker transition to cleaner, safer energy policy for America.
  Mr. LAMBORN. I would like to inquire of the Chair how much time is 
remaining for both sides.
  The CHAIR. The gentleman from Colorado has 18 minutes remaining, and 
the gentleman from New Jersey has 16 minutes remaining.
  Mr. LAMBORN. Then I would like to yield 1 minute to the gentleman 
from California (Mr. McClintock).
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Chairman, when I was listening to the gentlelady from California 
and her colleagues, I was reminded of Mark Twain's warning that we 
should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is 
there and then stop, lest we be like the cat that sits on a hot stove 
lid. That cat will not sit on a hot stove lid again--and this is good--
but, also, it will not sit on a cold stove lid again.
  The cost of the irrational reaction by this administration to what 
was, in essence, a mechanical failure of a blowout preventer is 
horrific, as measured in unemployed families, higher energy prices, 
lost business to shops throughout the region, and lost royalties to the 
Nation's Treasury. It is said that the economic damage done by this 
administration in response to the oil spill could be far greater than 
that done by the oil spill itself, and I believe it. I would suggest a 
little common sense will go a long way, and this bill provides it.
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Chairman, earlier the gentleman mentioned Brazil. The 
bill before us would grant a blanket extension for leases in the gulf 
that are about to expire. And according to the Interior Department, 
this amendment would extend about 100 leases and costs about $6 million 
over 10 years. Well, 12 of those leases that would be extended 
automatically belong to Petrobras, the Brazilian oil giant. It would, 
indeed, provide a windfall given from American taxpayers to the State-
owned Brazilian oil giant Petrobras. Yes, this bill in front of us now.
  I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida, 
Representative Castor, who, unlike some of the debaters today, is 
someone who actually lives on the Gulf of Mexico.
  Ms. CASTOR of Florida. I thank my colleague for yielding time.
  Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 1229.
  This Republican proposal is very poor public policy. And as a Member 
who represents a community that is dependent on the gulf coast's 
economy, frankly, it is appalling for my Republican friends to press to 
eliminate safety standards on oil companies who want to continue to 
drill and come closer and closer to our beautiful beaches. Really, it 
is beyond the pale. And I have to ask, did my colleagues not learn 
anything from this disaster?
  In our economy on Florida's gulf coast, we depend on clean water and 
clean beaches, and when you bring up a bill like this, it feels like a 
direct challenge to our economic recovery. We have not recovered. The 
hotels and motels on the beach, the seafood industry, all the mom and 
pop shops who are dependent on the tourism industry, we are still 
struggling to come back. We want to adopt the recommendations of the 
oil spill commission that recommends stronger safety standards, 
something like that which was passed on a bipartisan basis here in the 
House last year.
  Now to add insult to injury, my Republican colleagues recently passed 
a budget that gives taxpayer subsidies to the Big Oil companies. In the 
face of a burgeoning debt and deficit and in the face of huge profits 
by the oil companies, why should the American taxpayers be subsidizing 
the bottom line of the most profitable corporations in the world? 
Instead, it is time for a meaningful, comprehensive energy strategy to 
lower gas prices because it appears that that's what we all are in 
agreement to do. But to do that, it's not to eliminate safety standards 
for drilling. That's silly. What we should do is end the giveaways to 
Big Oil, eliminate the $5 billion in subsidies and loopholes that the 
oil companies receive each year. Let's prohibit Wall Street speculators 
from artificially driving up oil prices. Let's develop super-efficient 
cars and clean alternative energies that will create good jobs in 
America and then bring down gas prices.
  Mr. Chairman, finally, I caution the oil companies and their friends 
in Congress that the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout was only 1 year ago. 
Most of the necessary safety standards and recommendations of the 
bipartisan oil spill commission have not been adopted. No one should be 
pressing for unbridled drilling without ensuring that another blowout 
disaster would never happen again. Otherwise, many of us on the gulf 
coast view the blind-eyed push as a serious threat to our multibillion 
dollar tourism and fishing industries and our coastal environmental 
resources.
  Florida's long-term economic health is dependent on clean water and 
clean beaches and clean oceans. Our economy is struggling right now. I 
am confident that Florida's economy will recover, but Florida's long-
term economic outlook will suffer immensely if we have to suffer 
through another blowout disaster.
  Mr. Chairman, we need an honest dialogue on energy solutions based on 
facts. Americans are clamoring for comprehensive long-term energy 
solutions so we are less dependent on foreign oil.
  Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to point out that anyone who 
reads the bill will see on the bottom of page 1 and the top of page 2, 
``Safety review required. The Secretary shall not issue a permit under 
paragraph one without ensuring that the proposed drilling operations 
meet all, A, critical safety system requirements, including blowout 
prevention; and B, oil spill response and containment requirements.''
  So when we look at the facts, we should start with the text of the 
bill itself.
  At this point, I would like to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from 
the State of Louisiana (Mr. Fleming).
  Mr. FLEMING. I thank the gentleman.
  I wanted to respond to a couple of things from the other side. First 
of all, Mr. Landry and I are both from Louisiana. We are not potted 
plants. We are actually from a State that is on the coast. In fact, Mr. 
Landry lives, actually, on the coast. So I think we speak from 
experience and knowledge on that.
  With respect to seafood, yes, there is a problem with the seafood. 
It's a perception problem. Seafood in Louisiana is the safest seafood 
in the world. We have just got to get that message out to the American 
people.
  Let's talk about subsidies. We hear about subsidies. Well, you know 
there is a profiteer when it comes to oil: 36 to 63 cents per gallon is 
swept off the top. And who profits from that? The government profits 
from it. And what does the government do with much of that money? It 
puts it into so-called alternative energy with so-called phony green 
jobs that we are yet to see being produced, wind and solar, et cetera.
  The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. LAMBORN. I yield the gentleman an additional 15 seconds.
  Mr. FLEMING. Now, it's also been suggested, Well, perhaps we should 
punish these evil oil companies by taxing them. Mr. Chairman, who pays 
the taxes? It's the consumers. It's the American people. You add a 10 
percent tax to oil exploration or gasoline or whatever, and it's us, 
it's we--we are the ones who will have to pay that, not the oil 
companies.

                              {time}  1640

  Like any company, they pass these costs along to the consumer. So I 
want to see gas prices go down, not up, like the other side.
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Chairman, I am now pleased to yield such time as he may 
consume to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), the ranking 
member on the full committee, and someone who has done as much as 
anyone in this body to create green jobs in America over the decades.
  Mr. MARKEY. I thank the gentleman from New Jersey very much, and I 
thank him for his leadership on these issues. We're partners in this 
effort to try to move toward a new energy direction.
  So last week we had a debate on the issue of whether or not the $4 
billion

[[Page H3124]]

that the oil industry gets in tax breaks per year from the American 
consumer should be taken away at this time when ExxonMobil reported $10 
billion worth of profits in the first quarter, that is just January, 
February and March. Shell reported $8.8 billion; BP, $7.1 billion; 
Chevron, $6.2 billion; ConocoPhillips, $3 billion. That's in the first 
3 months of this year.
  But you know what the argument is, from the Republican side, is that 
they would be punished if the consumer, if the taxpayer didn't also 
give them an additional $4 billion in tax breaks.
  So let's just look at this chart. This is how much they made as 
people are pulling up to the pump paying $3.80, $4, $4.20 all across 
America. Now, you know what the oil companies could do? They could say, 
You know what? I think we made too much. I think what we should do in 
the first quarter is just lower the price at the pump so we don't make 
so much. Maybe we don't have to have the consumer paying $4 a gallon. 
Maybe we, ExxonMobil, maybe we could have made 9.7. Maybe Shell could 
have made 7.8, maybe BP could have made only $6.1 billion, maybe 
Chevron could have made only $5.2 billion. In other words, maybe they 
each could have made $1 billion less, and that would be $4 billion in 
the first quarter.
  But, no. They decide that if the war in Libya is going to take 1.2 
million barrels of oil off the market, if the Saudi Arabians are going 
to take 800,000 barrels of oil off the market, that that's a free 
market. And so if the price goes up to skyrocketing heights, we have a 
right to take all that extra money out of the consumers' pockets. 
That's the free market. The war in Libya is a free market. Saudi Arabia 
taking 800,000 barrels off the market, that's a free market.
  Now, the American consumer, they look at it and they say that's not a 
free market. The American taxpayers, they look at it and they say 
that's not the free market. We're sending over more bombers. We're 
sending over more troops. We're adding more to the defense budget of 
the country. Why would we do that? What does that have to do with the 
free market? What does this increase in defense expenditures and the 
number of young men and women that we send over to the Middle East to 
protect this cordon of oil tankers coming into the United States have 
to do with the free market?
  But nonetheless, that's the argument of the Republicans and, by the 
way, of ExxonMobil and Shell and BP. They deserve these profits, they 
say, just for 3 months.
  By the way, you can multiply each one of these numbers by at least 
four, at least the next three quarters of 2011 as well, and project 
ExxonMobil making $40 billion this year and Shell 34 or $35 billion, et 
cetera, et cetera.
  But the Republicans say they still need the extra $4 billion from the 
taxpayer pocket. So they dip into one pocket, the consuming pocket, and 
they tip the consumer upside down, and they take all this money out of 
their pockets. And you don't see any restraint on the part of the oil 
companies taking advantage of the war in Libya. And then they want to 
dip into the other pocket of the consumer, the consumer as a taxpayer, 
and then they say you can't take away those tax breaks either.
  So that's a very interesting position to have to defend at this point 
in time, especially since they're saying that they want to cut back on 
the benefits for Grandma on Medicare. They want to cut back the budget 
by 70 percent on wind and solar, on geothermal and biomass. They want 
to cut back the budget to help Grandma stay in a nursing home with 
Alzheimer's.
  But one thing you should never touch, and that's the $4 billion for 
ExxonMobil, Shell and BP from the taxpayers, even as they're reporting 
the largest profits in the history of the world that any corporation's 
made.
  And now, today, they have the temerity to come out here on the floor 
and they're looking for more. What this first bill that we're about to 
consider does is it legislates possible intimidation of Federal safety 
reviewers and puts a time clock on looking at the most controversial 
leases.
  Now, mind you, just 1 year ago in the Gulf of Mexico we were looking 
with amazement at the worst single environmental disaster in American 
history, and that is BP with no idea about how they were going to stop 
4 million barrels of oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. They had no 
idea how to stop it. And the American people, the world was tuned into 
the spill cam, almost, you know, fixated on this complete lack of 
safety, complete lack of preparation to protect the life and the 
livelihoods of the people who live around the Gulf of Mexico.
  So what's the response of the Republican Party 1 year later? Is it to 
pass a safety bill? Is it to implement the recommendations of the BP 
Spill Commission, this blue ribbon panel of experts that identified 
that there are systemic failures in the safety precautions built into 
drilling in the United States? Is it to deal with the fact that they 
identified that there are four times higher fatalities on American rigs 
as there are on European rigs drilling off the shores of Europe?
  No. All that legislation is stopped dead in its tracks. What they 
argue is we have got to give, you know, kind of a shot clock. You know 
how in the NBA, when you're watching TV and you only have 24 seconds to 
shoot a basketball, and so that creates a real intensity or else you 
lose the ball? Well, that's kind of what they want to say now to the 
Department of the Interior. We're putting you on a shot clock. You have 
60 days. You have 60 days to decide: Is that drilling rig safe? Have 
the precautions been put in place to ensure that a catastrophic 
accident can't happen?
  And if you don't make a decision in 60 days, Department of the 
Interior, on a rig that's out there at 3,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 feet 
and off the shore miles and miles and you can't figure it out, 
Department of the Interior--now, mind you, this is the same company 
that couldn't figure it out a year ago, and they're amongst the 
wealthiest companies in the world. But if you, the Department of the 
Interior, if you can't figure out what we can do, we the company can do 
in 60 days, we get to have the lease and we get to go ahead.

                              {time}  1650

  It is kind of like the NBA, except the consequences aren't that your 
home team loses; it's that your home team loses its job, your home team 
loses its environment because another catastrophic accident has 
occurred. That's what they do with this bill. They put a shot clock on 
it.
  So I think if the American people are looking at the absurdity of 
this situation with these companies, look at the companies that are 
lobbying for this: ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. 
These are the companies that 1 year ago said that they could evacuate 
walruses from the Gulf of Mexico. They had an emergency response plan 
in the event of a spill. Well, the problem was, of course, that they 
each had put it in writing; they had each put it in as an application 
to the Department of the Interior to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. But 
walruses, as every sixth grade child knows, have not lived in the Gulf 
of Mexico for 3 million years. So these are the companies that we are 
now supposed to trust.
  Put it on a shot clock, they say. Just let the Department of the 
Interior try to figure out everything that we are planning for Florida, 
Alabama, Louisiana, Texas.
  And, by the way, the way the gulf stream works is pulling a lot of 
that pollution, if it's bad, in God knows how many directions, and the 
fish that get exposed to it put into the food chain with endocrine 
disrupters, cancer-causing agents, potentially harming families. But 60 
days is all you have got.
  It's kind of like the NBA, when we think that's how oil drilling 
should be, too, because we trust these companies. They are obviously 
the most safety conscious companies that this world has ever known, 
because we can see how really responsible they are in dealing with 
consumers.
  They had a chance not to charge $4 a gallon because we are having a 
war in Libya and the Saudi Arabians took 800 barrels off the market, 
believe it or not, our friends the Saudis, over the last 6 weeks. But 
now we are just going to pretend that they are really good and 
responsible companies, and for them, so they can get all the leases 
that they want, they are on a shot clock--60 days.
  Good luck to the Department of the Interior. Good luck to the 
environment. Good luck to the consumer.

[[Page H3125]]

Good luck to the taxpayers if another accident occurs.
  So, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to have an incredible debate 
here on this issue, because these are the same people that just passed 
the budget that cut the wind and solar budget by 70 percent.
  You know, if you are a kid in America and it is 2011 and you are 
looking at this debate, you're saying to yourself: They cut the solar 
and wind budget in 2011 by 70 percent, and they are giving the oil 
companies unlimited profits, unlimited tax breaks, and unlimited access 
after 60 days to wherever they want to drill off of the coastline? Now, 
that's an upside-down agenda.
  And you have already heard some of the denigrating comments about 
wind and solar, which does reflect, I hate to say it, a deep-seated 
attitude about these renewable energy resources. But, you know, 
politics.
  And I think America is all about the future, and the future is about 
wind. It's about solar. It's about moving to all electric vehicles. 
It's about the agenda that they just pretty much defunded in their 
budget that they had the votes here on the House floor.
  So I would urge that we would defeat this piece of legislation.
  And their legislation, they say it's all of the above, but do you 
want to know what it is? It's oil above all. That is really what it is 
all about. Give the oil companies everything they want, and slash the 
budget for renewables. Slash the budget for all the other new 
technologies that we need to enhance our future.
  Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to inquire how much time is 
remaining to our side and if any remains on the other side.
  The CHAIR. The gentleman from Colorado has 15 minutes remaining. The 
time of the gentleman from New Jersey has expired.
  Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to say, I have been listening 
very closely and I still haven't heard a clear answer as to how $4 
billion of additional taxes on energy companies will translate into 
lower costs at the pump. Now, I don't think it can be done, but I 
haven't even heard a cogent argument to establish that. So I am still 
listening, and maybe I will hear that later.
  At this time, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana, who 
lives on and represents a district on the Gulf of Mexico, Mr. Landry.
  Mr. LANDRY. Mr. Chairman, I do. I live on the coast. I represent most 
of coastal Louisiana. And what I wonder is, where were my colleagues in 
2008? I was not in this body; they were.
  They were worried about my shrimpers? In 2008, almost every shrimp 
boat from Venice to Delcambre was at the dock. Why? Because they had 
run diesel to just about $5 a gallon. You see, it takes energy for 
those shrimpers to go out there on the Gulf of Mexico.
  They worry about the tourism in Florida? There are already multiple 
articles in the paper that say that high gas prices are killing tourism 
in Florida.
  This is a responsibility bill. You see, they want to punish those who 
make a profit while they give taxpayer money to those who fail, who are 
too big to fail. They punish the companies who make profits in this 
country while they give our money to those who fail to make a profit.
  It amazes me, because what really matters here, what really creates 
jobs not only in my district but in everyone else's district is 
affordable energy. Affordable energy is what powers the U.S. economy.
  If they want to bring the profits of those four Big Oil companies 
down, they should vote for this bill. Because when we drive the price 
of oil down and when we drive the price at the pump down, we are going 
to drive those profits down and we are going to take away our 
dependency on those foreign countries that are making way more profits 
than those private companies.
  So I urge my colleagues to remember that the responsible thing to do 
is to vote for this bill so that we can bring the price at the pump 
down.
  Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to address the issue of 
safety that has been raised a couple of times here.
  I quoted from the bill text earlier to show that there, indeed, are 
safety requirements that have been put into the bill as part of H.R. 
1229:
  The Secretary will not issue a permit unless critical safety system 
requirements, including blowout prevention and oil spill response and 
containment requirements, have been satisfied.
  At this point, Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to another gentleman 
from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise).
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate my colleague yielding to talk 
about this important legislation; because, Mr. Chairman, as I just got 
back home from New Orleans over the weekend, of course people all 
throughout the gulf coast, people all throughout the country are 
frustrated and angry about the high gas prices we are paying at the 
pump.
  In south Louisiana you don't need to look any further than the area 
that I represent to see the devastating impact of this administration's 
policies, not only on high gas prices but also on jobs.
  We have lost over 13,000 jobs in south Louisiana just because of this 
administration's refusal to let our people go back to work, people that 
were drilling safely, exploring for energy in America, that are 
literally on the verge of being put out of business because this 
administration won't let them go back to work where there are known 
barrels of oil, billions of barrels in some of these areas in the Outer 
Continental Shelf that are closed off because of this administration.
  They say there is no moratorium anymore, but we call it a 
permitorium, because they don't allow companies to go back to work, 
hiring people, creating jobs, allowing our country to become energy 
independent.
  If you look at the results of their policies, not only has it yielded 
higher gas prices at the pump, but for anybody on the other side that 
suggests that cutting off the supply has nothing to do with the price 
of oil, they need to go back and take a basic economics course.
  I don't think OPEC could have developed a better policy than what 
they have got right now, because they are saying basically we are not 
allowing our people to go back to work in the United States, but the 
President wants to encourage drilling in Brazil. He asked the Saudis to 
produce more energy. We have got billions of barrels in America, and 
our people can't even go back to work.
  So this legislation at least says, enough of this delay, enough of 
the foolishness and the games and blaming everybody else while gas 
prices continue to skyrocket. Prices have more than doubled at the pump 
since President Obama took the oath of office, and it is his policies 
that are causing this.
  So I am glad that this leadership is bringing legislation to the 
floor here in the House to finally say we are going to do something 
about it; we are not going to look the other way. Our plan isn't to 
raise billions more in taxes so people pay even more at the pump and so 
we are even more dependent on foreign oil. We are actually going to 
make America energy independent by saying let's let our people go back 
to work.
  The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. LAMBORN. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Chairman, I will conclude by saying this: If you go 
throughout south Louisiana and you see the 13,000 jobs that we have 
lost; you talk to families who are hanging on by a vine; you talk to 
small business owners who barely can make ends meet and they are just 
struggling to hold on to their business, and all they want to do is go 
back to work, and this administration is saying ``no.'' But, no, they 
want to drill in Brazil. They want our people across the country to pay 
higher gas prices.
  There is a better way. There is an answer. There is a solution, and 
that is in this legislation being brought forward. I urge that my 
colleagues from across the country vote to lower gas prices and pass 
this bill.

                              {time}  1700

  Mr. LAMBORN. I thank the gentleman and the others from the Natural 
Resources Committee on the Republican side who have spoken on this 
issue or are with the Energy and Commerce Committee and made great 
comments about how we do need to do what

[[Page H3126]]

we can in Congress to lower the price of gasoline. We do that by 
increasing production. The two go together. We don't do it by 
increasing taxes on the energy producers. We allow for policies to 
allow for more production.
  We have to pass H.R. 1229 to make sure that, whether it is deliberate 
or not, this administration will not continue to stonewall the 
permitting process. It is a long and lengthy process. There are 
multiple environmental reviews that take place. Then to hold it up at 
the last and not allow for a permit to be issued is just not 
acceptable. All the work has been done when it becomes time to issue 
the permit.
  So what this bill says is you have 30 days, with a couple of 
extensions, if necessary, to make the final decision. And you don't 
have to issue the permit. You can say no, if that is the best decision. 
Just take action, and let's have a little certainty in the business 
world and in the economy of our country, especially the Gulf of Mexico 
and the coastal States like Louisiana that are so heavily affected.
  On the issue of safety, Mr. Chairman, we all do share the goal of 
wanting to make sure that offshore drilling is the safest in the world. 
Significant and fundamental changes have taken place over the past year 
to improve offshore drilling safety and response. Regulations have been 
enhanced and strengthened, standards have been increased, new 
technology has been developed, reviewed, tested and is being currently 
deployed.
  BOEMRE Director Michael Bromwich came to our committee and testified 
in front of the Natural Resources Committee and he said, ``We have 
confidence that offshore drilling can be conducted now more safely than 
it had been before and that we would be better able to deal with a 
blowout than we were before.''
  Now, if anyone on the other side of the aisle wants to act as if 
nothing has been changed and there have been no safety reforms imposed, 
they are indicting the Obama administration in saying that they have 
turned a blind eye to the situation since the BP crisis took place, and 
that is simply not true. As I said a minute ago, new regulations have 
been imposed and standards have been strengthened. So I am not going to 
sit here and indict the administration on the safety aspect. There have 
been a lot of safety regulations by bureaucratic regulation put into 
place.
  This bill does acknowledge that two additional things will be part of 
our law when this bill passes. H.R. 1229 says, number one, the 
Secretary will issue a permit. The need for a permit has not been ever 
codified, so we are requiring that a permit has to be issued before 
drilling can take place. Number two, the Secretary is to conduct a 
safety review. That is being mandated and put into law.
  Mr. Chairman, I would urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 
1229. We are going to be looking at some amendments shortly.
  Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Chair, I rise in strong support of H.R. 
1229, the Putting the Gulf Back to Work Act, and I thank Natural 
Resources Committee Chairman Hastings for yielding me time.
  At a time when hardworking Georgians are paying $3.88 per gallon at 
the pump, it is critically important that we enact commonsense energy 
production policies to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create 
jobs. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration has adopted policies that 
have stifled energy production in this country, and have led to 12,000 
jobs lost during the moratorium imposed in the Gulf of Mexico last 
year.
  Mr. Chair, H.R. 1229 will end the ongoing ``de facto'' moratorium 
caused by the White House's refusal to approve permits in the Gulf by 
requiring the Department of the Interior to grant permits for 
exploration of oil and natural gas. This commonsense legislation will 
create thousands of jobs, help recapture $4.7 million that the Federal 
Government is losing on a daily basis from a lack of energy production, 
and will lead us to greater energy independence.
  I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 1229.
  Mr. ROTHMAN. Mr. Chair, I rise today to voice my strong opposition to 
H.R. 1229 and H.R. 1230.
  In April 2010, our Nation watched as millions of gallons of oil 
spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from an oil drilling rig off the coast 
of Louisiana. We saw photos of the disaster that ensued, the impact on 
our environment (including the damage caused to marine and coastal 
wildlife) and the devastating economic impact on communities in the 
Gulf Coast region. From the loss of fishing jobs and revenue from 
tourism to the harm of biodiversity in fragile wetland ecosystems and 
marine life breeding grounds, this oil spill caused immense destruction 
to a resource rich area.
  I am concerned that without changes to the offshore drilling industry 
standards, a disaster like the Deepwater Horizon explosion of April 
2010 could happen again. Today, the majority in the House is asking us 
to pass H.R. 1229 and to forget about the tragic events of last April 
and the inadequacies of our national energy policy in order to grant 
Big Oil access to the Gulf with less oversight--rushing lease sales in 
the Gulf of Mexico at an unprecedented pace and without proper 
environmental review. This bill is not only ill-advised, but it is 
unnecessary as well because the Obama Administration is already moving 
forward with the lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico with added reviews 
to ensure sound safety and environment protections.
  In addition, H.R. 1230 would require the Interior Department to hold 
additional lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico over the next 4 to 8 
months and open the eastern seaboard for drilling by requiring a lease 
sale off the coast of Virginia this year. This bill would require the 
Interior Department to rely on environmental reviews for these areas 
done by the Bush Administration prior to the Deepwater Horizon 
disaster, with many of the same demonstrably flawed and dangerous 
assumptions and inadequate review processes as the BP lease that led to 
the disastrous spill in April 2010. The majority in Congress is using 
rising gasoline prices as an excuse to grant large, multi-national 
energy companies greater access to even more of our precious shores, 
including on the Atlantic Coast which could affect New Jersey in the 
event of a spill.
  I believe opening our coastal waters and protected wilderness areas 
to oil drilling is harmful, ineffective, and a step in the wrong 
direction that will damage our environment. We are currently drilling 
at a higher rate than we ever have and onshore production increased by 
5% in 2010. Production in the Gulf of Mexico is at an all time high. 
Yet, of the 41 million acres of public lands now leased for oil and gas 
development, just 12 million acres are producing. Offshore, 38 million 
acres of the outer continental shelf are leased for oil and gas 
drilling, but just 6.5 million acres are producing. We have approved 
drilling leases on land where no drilling is taking place; the 
potential for higher production is there without expanding leasing to 
environmentally sensitive wildlife refuges or populated shore regions.
  Moreover, the proposed drilling will not significantly lower gas 
prices. According to a 2009 study from the Energy Information 
Administration, opening up waters that are currently closed to drilling 
off the East Coast, West Coast and the Gulf coast of Florida would 
yield an extra 500,000 barrels a day by 2030, meaning that gas prices 
might drop a total of 3 cents a gallon. And that is years away. In the 
meantime, Big Oil companies continue to rake in record profits while 
taxpayers subsidize their costs. The American people have had enough, 
New Jersey has had enough and I have had enough. We need to stop Big 
Oil subsidies and explore alternatives.
  Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The CHAIR. All time for general debate has expired.
  Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.
  The motion was agreed to.
  Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. 
Landry) having assumed the chair, Mr. Womack, Chair of the Committee of 
the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that 
Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1229) to amend 
the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to facilitate the safe and timely 
production of American energy resources from the Gulf of Mexico, had 
come to no resolution thereon.

                          ____________________