[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9712]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         REPUBLICAN ENERGY BILL

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the Republican energy bill includes 
dangerous provisions that would overturn long-standing moratoria on 
drilling in new areas of the Outer Continental Shelf and gut States' 
rights.
  President Bush supports an inventory on the Outer Continental Shelf 
that would threaten the long-standing moratoria on new drilling in the 
OCS off the entire East Coast and lead to new drilling.
  The inventory is unnecessary. The Minerals Management Service already 
conducts a survey every 5 years, the latest published in 2000. The 
assessment includes estimates of undiscovered oil and natural gas that 
is conventionally and economically recoverable.
  The President should be seeking long-term solutions that make sense 
for energy development and that balance environmental protection and 
economic growth. Instead, he wants to gut the moratorium on oil and gas 
drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and weaken States' rights under 
the Coastal Zone Management Act.
  Mr. Speaker, States have used the Coastal Zone Management Act to 
protect their valuable coastlines from new offshore drilling. The 
President should be working to enforce our laws and not weaken them.

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