[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 17, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H3381-H3382]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   MAKE THE BAN ON DRILLING PERMANENT

  (Mr. FRANCIS ROONEY of Florida asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FRANCIS ROONEY of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this week marks the 
eighth anniversary of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the 
central Gulf of Mexico.
  Accordingly, I rise today to, once again, vigorously oppose any 
effort to allow energy exploration in the eastern gulf. The ban on 
drilling east of the Military Mission Line, 86 degrees, 41 minutes 
west, was put in place in 2006 and is going to expire in 2022. We need 
to make it permanent.
  Our tourism industry in Florida and our residential development need 
protection from offshore drilling. We need protection from the oil 
companies.
  Another spill like Deepwater Horizon would be an existential threat 
to Florida. The clockwise loop current, which runs all down the west 
coast, would carry any chemicals that get into the water all down the 
west coast to Key West.
  We don't need the eastern Gulf to become self-sufficient in energy, 
either. Technology and the shale revolution have taken care of that.
  The Western Hemisphere is already independent and the U.S. itself 
will be before long. It is estimated that the U.S. will supply 30 
percent of Mexico's gas by 2030. In the Permian Basin alone, one of the 
three producing sands is estimated to hold over 20 billion barrels of 
oil equivalence.
  As the CEO of Shell said recently: We will see peak demand for 
gasoline and oil within the decade.
  Shell's latest offshore platform, the Vito, has been scaled back 80 
percent from 40,000 tons to 8,900 tons because it is just not 
productive.
  Shell is investing in alternative energies.
  Mr. Speaker, please protect Florida and make the ban permanent.

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