[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6623-6625]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           OFFSHORE DRILLING

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, I rise today, as I am pleased we are 
finally moving to Wall Street reform--something I have come to speak 
about several times on the floor. That is critically important to our 
country, critically important to our economy, critically important to 
investors and consumers to have confidence, and I am glad we are moving 
to that, as a member of the Banking Committee. But at the same time, 
there is an enormous environmental challenge taking place in our 
country, one that I think portends the consequences of offshore 
drilling.
  I rise today to discuss the tragedy in the gulf and looming 
environmental disaster that threatens the gulf.
  First, I want to remember those who lost their lives in the tragic 
fire and explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of 
Mexico last week. Our thoughts and prayers are with the workers and 
their families.
  The loss of life and the injuries are truly horrific, but this is 
also an environmental tragedy, one that threatens to reach historic 
proportions. Over 1 million gallons of oil have already leaked into the 
gulf. Each hour that passes without a solution, without a way to stop 
it, leads us to wonder what the extent of the damage will be. It is a 
wake-up call to all who are trying to weigh the benefits against the 
risks of offshore drilling as part of our energy mix. It certainly 
leads this Senator to wonder about the wisdom and the necessity of 
drilling off the coast of my State of New Jersey and, I would argue, 
off the coast of any Senator's coastal State.
  As I stand on this floor today--and I show you this picture I have in 
the Chamber of the fire the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was engulfed in 
before it sunk--before it sunk--and then had all of the oil spilling 
into the gulf. As I stand here on this floor today, an oil slick bigger 
than the State of Delaware--over 4,000 square miles--is drifting toward 
shore--drifting toward

[[Page 6624]]

shore. To give you some perspective of what that means, as shown in 
this other picture, this is how big this oil sheen is when compared to 
my home State of New Jersey--all of the yellow. If this spill in the 
gulf were happening, for example, in Virginia waters right now, my 
whole State would be holding its breath because NOAA has shown my 
office how a spill in Virginia waters could easily wash up on the New 
Jersey shore.
  I say to the Presiding Officer, I do not know if you have visited New 
Jersey, but we have magnificent, pristine beaches. The dunes along the 
coast are breathtaking. Wildlife is abundant. Tourism depends on it. It 
would all--it would all--be in jeopardy.
  The next photograph I want to show is what happens to wildlife in 
these oil slicks. This is a photograph in the aftermath of the Exxon 
Valdez spill. We hope and pray the spill in the gulf stays offshore, 
but the reality is, it could make landfall any day now and this 
photograph could be repeated a thousand times.
  Now we learn the spill from the Deepwater Horizon is worse than it 
was originally reported--far worse, at least five times worse. The 
Coast Guard and NOAA have revised their estimate of the leak. They now 
say it is not 42,000 gallons per day but 210,000 gallons a day. Imagine 
if the leak continues for 2 months, which seems like a real possibility 
at this point. In 2 months, it will have exceeded the amount of oil 
spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster. Let's keep something in mind: The 
Exxon Valdez was a tanker with a finite amount of oil aboard. This is 
virtually a bottomless pit of oil.
  When asked to compare this spill to previous spills, the Coast Guard 
compared it to the IXTOC I spill. On June 3, 1979, an exploratory well 
called the IXTOC I blew out in the Gulf of Mexico. It took 9 months--9 
months--to cap, to seal, and the resulting spill was the second largest 
in world history, over 10 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill. As 
my colleagues can see from this map which has Texas, Louisiana, and the 
gulf, the spill traveled 600 miles from its center--600 miles--
blanketing the coasts of Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana, causing 
extraordinary damage.
  Now we are debating the wisdom of expanding oil production on the 
Outer Continental Shelf; in essence, all along the coastlines of our 
country. Some think the way to expand offshore drilling reasonably is 
simply to create some type of a buffer zone off the coast as if a 
little more room can protect our shores; as if the ocean is in neat, 
little boxes that could somehow be confined. Frankly, I think this 
graphic of the IXTOC spill shows that oilspills don't respect State 
borders or buffer zones.
  In the wake of what we are seeing in the gulf, I am deeply concerned 
that the current 5-year plan recently announced by the administration 
would allow oil drilling less than 100 miles from Cape May, NJ. Cape 
May is a great historical place in New Jersey with beautiful beaches--
some of the greatest beaches in the Nation. Cape May, where Delaware 
Bay meets the Atlantic, is the epicenter of bird migration on the 
entire East Coast and one of New Jersey's most significant seaside 
resort communities; the fourth most lucrative fishing port in the 
entire Nation, rich with scallop beds. It is less than 10 miles from 
Delaware waters--waters that the administration announced they are 
studying for possible future drilling.
  So I am concerned that if the lease sales go forward, the coastlines 
of Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey will be under threat--not just an 
environmental threat but an economic one as well. Approximately 60 
percent--60 percent--of New Jersey's $38 billion tourism industry comes 
from the Jersey shore, and the State's multibillion-dollar fishing 
industry would also be threatened by the specter of a potential 
oilspill.
  We had an unfortunate incident in New Jersey's history. Years ago, in 
1987, when the shore was polluted with medical waste in that year and 
medical waste that ended up on the beaches of New Jersey--syringes on 
the beach of New Jersey and other medical waste on the beaches of New 
Jersey--tourism revenue dropped 22 percent the very next year, and it 
took some time to recover. If a serious oilspill were ever to hit our 
coast, the damage would be enormously costly, and if the Exxon Valdez 
spill is any guide, much of the damage would be permanent.
  It simply does not make sense to play Russian roulette with an asset 
that generates thousands of jobs and tens of billions of dollars per 
year for potential drilling assets that could never generate even one-
tenth of that, and this is only in one State. Magnify that by so many 
other States that have similar coastal economies.
  This tragedy in the gulf is a wakeup call. It demands that whatever 
we do in terms of drilling, we do carefully, thoughtfully, and with the 
very real images of this tragedy in mind. It is obvious--now more than 
ever--that we cannot ignore the risks of oil exploration, that we 
cannot take the safety of these rigs for granted or the reliability of 
redundant shutoff systems that were supposed to prevent such a spill.
  It is time to weigh the risks against the payback. And what is the 
payback? Well, the Energy Information Administration, the entity our 
Federal Government has to give us information about our energy sources, 
estimates that opening all the shores--all shores to drilling--would 
amount to no more than a few hundred thousand barrels per day, which 
translates to a few tablespoons of gasoline per American vehicle. We 
don't keep oil in a domestic market. Oil is part of a world market, so 
there is no guarantee that American-produced oil comes to America for 
the purposes we need. It is hardly a drop in the bucket, with no 
measurable impact on gas prices. I don't want to gamble with the 
coastline of New Jersey or any of these other States for a few 
tablespoons of gasoline.
  This image of a burning rig in the gulf that ultimately sunk and for 
which we have all this disaster taking place is a wakeup call to all of 
us who are committed to finding the best energy options for the 
future--options that will not put hundreds of miles of our coastline at 
risk. I don't quite understand why it is that when we are talking about 
global climate change legislation, we are also in desperate pursuit of 
oil, which is a contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions we are 
trying to avoid and, in essence, change from, so we don't have the 
climactic changes that can threaten our way of life. However, that is 
exactly what we are doing by going after this.
  So I am respectfully requesting that the administration reconsider 
its proposal to expand offshore drilling until we are absolutely 
certain we can protect the New Jersey shore and the entire Atlantic 
seaboard from the potential environmental and economic disaster that 
could come from coastal drilling. I don't know why the Atlantic coast 
has to be under siege, but it seems to be. The other coastline was 
largely kept unexplored.
  Instead of doubling down on 19th century fuels such as oil, we should 
be investing in a 21st century green economy that will create thousands 
of new jobs, billions in new wealth, and help protect our air and water 
from pollution. It is time for this country to move forward and embrace 
the future rather than clutch to the ways of the past that have not 
only given us this addiction but at the same time given us the 
consequences in our environment of polluting it in a way that 
ultimately creates risks to our crops, our farmers, our shorelines, as 
well as our health. My home State of New Jersey still has far too much 
incidence of respiratory ailments, including cancers.
  We can do much better than this. We should do much better than this. 
We should stop feeding an addiction that ultimately would only add but 
a few tablespoons of gas and not do anything about the price but put an 
enormous risk to the economy of these coastlines, to our natural 
habitats, and to the quality of air we breathe. I hope the President 
will understand this disaster is a wakeup call that needs to be thought 
of seriously before we move forward on something that can be so risky 
to our economy, to our environment, and to our way of life.

[[Page 6625]]

  With that, I yield the floor and observe the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. McCASKILL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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