[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 178 (Monday, December 16, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1877-E1878]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       OCEAN ENERGY SAFETY AND TECHNOLOGY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2013

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RUSH HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, December 16, 2013

  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to introduce the Ocean Energy 
Safety and Technology Improvement Act of 2013, a bill to facilitate the 
development and use of technology to make offshore drilling safer for 
workers and the environment.
  A little more than three and a half years ago, the Deepwater Horizon 
exploded and sank off the coast of Louisiana, killing eleven workers, 
and allowing its unfinished well to pour millions of barrels of crude 
oil into the Gulf of Mexico until it was finally capped several months 
later. This event--the greatest single environmental disaster in 
American history--exposed as a myth the idea that such tragic offshore 
events, such as the Montara explosion in Australia, the Piper Alpha 
disaster in the North Sea, or the Ixtoc blowout in Mexico, could not 
happen in the United States.
  There was no question that the industry had gotten complacent. And 
the regulators had gotten complacent. And even Congress had gotten 
complacent. The only debate before the Deepwater Horizon tragedy was 
where drilling should occur, not how safe it would be. Those of us 
whose states depend on clean beaches and clear water to fuel a multi-
billion dollar tourism industry were assured that technology had 
reached the point that there was no risk whatsoever: that offshore 
drilling could coexist with clean beaches, that vacationers and 
merchants would never have to fear oil-soaked seabirds dying on their 
shores, or tarballs staining the coasts for years to come.
  Those assurances, we learned in April 2010, were completely false. 
The technology the industry boasted of was about drilling deeper and 
faster, not about being cleaner or safer. And while there is a 
requirement in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act for companies to 
use the ``best available and safest technology,'' in reality companies 
were allowed to simply meet regulatory minimums. The Bureau of Safety 
and Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE, recently proposed to close that 
loophole and ensure that companies really are using the best and safest 
technology; naturally that proposal was met with the predictable wails 
from industry.
  But despite those complaints, this is clearly an idea whose time has 
come. In October, the National Academy of Sciences released a report 
with recommendations on how to implement a true requirement for using 
the best available and safest technology available in the offshore 
industry. The Academy endorsed BSEE's formation of an Ocean Energy 
Safety Institute, but said that the institute needed more funding, more 
stability, and more authority.
  That is what my legislation does. It adopts the National Academy's 
recommendations by giving BSEE the authority to stand up a robust, 
permanent Ocean Energy Safety Institute with a steady source of 
funding. The Institute will facilitate collaboration between academia, 
regulators, and industry, serve as a center of excellence for offshore 
safety research and education, and most importantly, help BSEE identify 
the best available and safest technologies currently in use, and 
facilitate the development of better and safer technologies.
  This legislation also implements other recommendations from the 
Academy, including providing the authority for the review of drilling 
plans and permits to be prioritized if they would use particularly 
innovative safety technologies, and promoting safety research by small 
businesses, where many of the best innovations arise.

[[Page E1878]]

  Let me be clear: I do not believe that offshore drilling can ever be 
made safe enough to put the beaches and tourist economy of New Jersey 
at risk. There will always be the chance of equipment failure or human 
error that produces a catastrophic result, regardless of the level of 
technology employed. No amount of oil or gas is worth the potential 
destruction of the state's lifeblood. I also believe that a continued 
dependence on offshore oil and gas, from any part of the country, keeps 
us from addressing the real issue that we should be focusing on: how to 
move to a renewable energy economy and ensure long-lasting energy and 
climate security.
  However, I acknowledge that we cannot get there overnight, and 
offshore drilling will continue in places like the Gulf of Mexico, at 
least for the time being. But while it is happening, we should ensure 
that it is being done with the absolute best safety and environmentally 
responsible technology available, and I urge my colleagues to join me 
in getting to that point by supporting the Offshore Drilling Safety 
Technology Improvement Act of 2013.

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