[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13332]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         END THE OCS MORATORIUM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Stearns) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Good morning, Madam Speaker.
  A question for all of us: Why would the most powerful economy in the 
world leave so much of its own energy sources untapped?
  Alone among all the countries, the United States has placed a 
substantial amount of its oil and natural gas potential off limits. 
Other countries have the potential to drill just off their shores, but 
United States' firms face strict restrictions on drilling in most 
offshore areas even as American drivers face sharply higher prices at 
the gas pump.
  Domestic oil and gas production has failed to keep pace with the 
growing demand both domestically and abroad, but it's not because we're 
not lacking for domestic energy. Since the 1990s, the Federal 
Government has placed severe restrictions on new energy development, 
particularly in some of our most promising areas.
  As this graph shows, Congress has placed over 85 percent of our Outer 
Continental Shelf off limits. Back then, oil and natural gas were 
cheap, and the need for additional energy was not considered 
significant. Also, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill led to the 
heightened environmental concerns about offshore energy production.
  Environmental concerns took precedence over future economic 
considerations. Soon, access to 85 percent of federally controlled 
offshore areas had been restricted, including the Pacific and Atlantic 
coasts and portions of the area off the shores of Alaska and off the 
eastern Gulf of Mexico. No one knows how much energy lies in those 
areas, but many agree there is enough to bring stability to energy 
markets and to make a real difference in oil and natural gas prices for 
many years to come.
  According to a recent Interior Department study, restricted offshore 
areas are known to contain--and this is a fact--15 billion barrels of 
oil and 60 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, but literally, when they 
go to estimate beyond the hard facts, the estimate goes up to 86 
billion barrels of oil and even higher and to 420 trillion cubic feet 
of natural gas, enough oil to replace all of our imports for the next 
27 years at current rates. In fact, it may be even higher given that 
most of the off-limit areas have not been thoroughly explored.
  New technology and what we estimate based upon the 1980s is probably 
not correct. Our policies need to catch up with our times. Oil and 
natural gas prices have tripled since the 1990s. Demand continues to 
increase by a steady 1.5 percent per year. Imports have increased. 
Political stability in oil-producing nations has decreased. Domestic 
production has flattened, all while our ability to extract resources 
without environmental damage has increased dramatically.
  With all of this energy out there, with demands at all-time highs and 
with prices remaining high, what has taken so long?
  The biggest problem has been environmental concerns, being worried 
about a spill. What would it do to the tourist industry, for example, 
in the gulf coast areas? The National Academy of Sciences says, 
``Improved production technology and safety training of personnel have 
dramatically reduced both blowouts and daily operational spills.''
  The danger of such spills has been greatly reduced. Of the more than 
7 billion barrels of oil pumped offshore in the past 25 years, 0.001 
percent--that is one thousandth of 1 percent--has been spilled. In 
fact, even during Katrina and Rita, during winds that reached 170 miles 
per hour and during lashing waves that took out a quarter of America's 
domestic energy production, no significant spills were reported. 
Furthermore, Cuba wants to let the Chinese drill in some of the very 
parts of the gulf that American producers are forbidden to touch, some 
as close as 45 miles off the Florida coast.
  Do we truly believe the environmental safeguards of Chinese energy 
firms are better than ours?
  It's time we stop assuming that all energy exploration is bad. Most 
takes place too far from the coast to be seen, and we haven't even had 
a spill from offshore drilling in over 40 years, neither has Canada, 
which permits drilling off its Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in the 
Great Lakes where some rigs are closer to U.S. shores than American 
producers are permitted to drill.
  Madam Speaker, America's energy problems are partially self-imposed, 
and that needs to end. Congress overreacted in the 1990s, and it needs 
to undo that damage. Our need for affordable energy will not decrease, 
and the time has come to lift the restrictions on offshore energy 
production and to let U.S. producers do what they can do to meet our 
growing energy demands. It's time for this Congress to get serious 
about bridging the growing gap between supply and demand. Opening the 
Outer Continental Shelf to environmentally sound exploration could be 
just the way to do it.

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