    [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2025)]
    [Senate]
    [Pages S1321-S1322]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                  S.J. Res. 11

      Mr. President, the second reason I rise is to talk about a regulation
    that I am trying to get rid of, but I want to begin with this
    observation.
      Nearly 5 years ago, when he was running for President--I remember it
    like it was yesterday--President Biden said:

           I guarantee you, we are going to end fossil fuels.

      ``I guarantee you,'' he said, in front of God, country, and the
    American people. ``I guarantee you,'' he said, ``we are going to end
    fossil fuels.''
      And he tried. For 4 years, he tried.
      Here is why I point that out.
      The first well drilled in the Gulf of America--I know some people
    call it the Gulf of Mexico. I don't want to get off into that
    discussion. But the first

    [[Page S1322]]

    well drilled offshore in the Gulf of America was drilled 87 years ago,
    in 1938. Since then, we have drilled, I think, 6,000 wells. There are
    6,000 platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.
      Now, before an oil company drills a well, on its own volition and at
    the suggestion of the Department of the Interior, the oil company
    surveys the seabed. It just makes sense for safety reasons but also for
    the sake of history because we want to look for shipwrecks.
      We have found--I don't know how many--shipwrecks. I had it written
    down: 4,000 shipwrecks. We have surveyed the entire Gulf of America in
    the 87 years since we started drilling there. We have surveyed 311,652
    square nautical miles, the surface area of Texas and California put
    together. That is how we found 4,000 shipwrecks. And it has cost
    hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. So we know what is there.
    We know what is there.
      Well, in September of 2024, the Department of the Interior, in a
    midnight regulation, in an effort to try to further hurt fossil fuels,
    passed a new rule, and they said: Look, we know we have surveyed the
    entire gulf, and we know we have found 4,000 shipwrecks. And we know
    that the area that we surveyed is the size of California and Texas put
    together. But every time you drill a new well, we want you to survey
    again.
      Well, why? I mean, what is the benefit? We know what the cost is. It
    costs anywhere from $10,000 to $1 million to resurvey again. It just
    makes no sense.
      And a third of the production in the gulf is from independent oil
    companies. Maybe the majors can support this, but if an independent oil
    company has to survey what has already been surveyed, it can add, as I
    said, $10,000 to $1 million to a well cost.
      What is the point? I can tell you what the point is. Somebody over at
    BOEM, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Department of the
    Interior, hates fossil fuels--somebody or somebodies.
      Now, I am not saying that the person who came up with this rule is
    the dumbest guy in the world, but that person better hope that the
    dumbest guy in the world doesn't die because this is just bone-deep,
    down-to-the-marrow dumb. This is the kind of ``spending porn'' that we
    all ought to abhor.
      So I am going to try to kill the regulation today under what, as the
    Presiding Officer knows, is called the Congressional Review Act, and we
    will be voting on that shortly.
      I realize that common sense, as I have said before, is illegal in
    Washington. This is not a normal place. But I hope folks who still have
    common sense will vote to get rid of this foolish rule.
      I yield the floor.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.

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