[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9297]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        AMERICA'S ENERGY POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, the recent explosion of the BP 
Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico has raised legitimate 
concerns regarding safety and environmental standards of deepwater, 
offshore drilling. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families that 
lost loved ones in this tragic accident. Eleven individuals were 
killed.
  Safety and responsible operating procedures must always come first, 
particularly when human lives are at risk. It is important to 
reevaluate and address our safety procedures and hold those responsible 
for the accident accountable.
  At the same time, I believe the Federal Government has the obligation 
to make informed and responsible decisions regarding offshore drilling. 
We have to differentiate between the causes of this accident and other 
responsible and safe drilling operations.
  Our primary purpose right now should be to stop the leak and 
determine the cause of this tragedy, and the Federal Government needs 
to simultaneously address the cleanup. We need the full cooperation of 
Federal, State, and local agencies, as well as private industry, to 
immediately address the cleanup and containment situation in the Gulf 
of Mexico.
  In my opinion, there has not been sufficient urgency to do this thus 
far. Cleanup remains inadequate and is still bogged down in redtape 
from Federal bureaucrats. This bureaucratic response from Interior 
Secretary Salazar has been to shut down all new offshore drilling 
permits, including both shallow water and deepwater offshore drilling.
  However, shallow water drilling is fundamentally different from 
deepwater drilling. It has operated safely in the Gulf of Mexico for 
over 60 years, yet this prohibition treats both the same. This drilling 
in shallow water is primarily for natural gas. The oil remaining in 
these reservoirs has largely been produced, so it is at lower pressure 
than the oil found at deeper depths. And unlike deepwater drilling, the 
blowout preventers in shallow water drilling are located above the 
surface, not thousands of feet below on the ocean floor.
  I recently joined our congressional neighbor in Louisiana, 
Congressman Charlie Boustany, and 40 other additional colleagues in 
sending a bipartisan letter urging Secretary Salazar to resume 
permitting for the shallow water drilling.
  The unintended consequences of this wide range ban are far-reaching. 
The blanket ban has the potential to cause more widespread economic 
damage in the gulf coast and the entire United States.
  The devastating effects of the oil spill go beyond waters and 
wetlands. For southeast Texas and southwestern Louisiana, our lives are 
intertwined with the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico. Over 
180,000 Americans are directly employed in the oil and gas and mining 
industries along the gulf coast, and the prospect for severe economic 
hardship is very real. And that doesn't include the countless people 
that make their living in fishing and restaurant and tourism-related 
industries. Many of these out-of-work fishermen stand ready to help 
with the cleanup but are denied the ability to help because it is 
stalled down in Federal redtape.
  I think we should have an-all-of-the-above energy policy, one that I 
believe we can achieve with the highest safety and environmental 
standards. Our Nation and our economy, however, run on fuel supplied by 
the oil-producing sector of the Gulf of Mexico. We cannot simply shut 
off the spigot and expect this Nation to run on nothing. Meanwhile, we 
need to clean up the mess and find out what caused this tragedy in the 
Gulf of Mexico. And that's just the way it is.

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