[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11238-11239]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CAPRICIOUS, ARBITRARY, PUNITIVE

  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. Mr. Speaker, ``capricious, arbitrary, and 
punitive.'' Those are the words of a Federal judge today in ruling 
about the moratorium for offshore drilling. The Federal judge said that 
the administration's decision to ban offshore drilling in the deepwater 
was capricious, arbitrary, and punitive--therefore, illegal. And the 
Federal judge granted an injunction by the hardworking folks in the 
gulf States to stop the moratorium because of the detrimental impact it 
would have.
  You see, Mr. Speaker, 150,000 people would lose their jobs if that 
moratorium continued. There are 3,900 wells in the gulf. Those 3,900 
wells produce 31 percent of the Nation's domestic oil and 11 percent of 
our natural gas. In the deepwater area, we receive 17 percent of the 
Nation's domestic crude oil from that deepwater drilling. So those

[[Page 11239]]

affected parties--by the arbitrary, capricious, and punitive ban of the 
Federal Government--decided to sue, and a Federal judge ruled that the 
administration's moratorium was improper, granted an injunction by the 
affected parties, and allowed them to now drill in deepwater. The 
Federal judge said that the people that sued the oil-related industries 
would suffer irreparable harm if this ban were to continue. The 
government's response was, Well, their losses would be trivial. The 
Federal judge didn't buy their argument.
  Also, before a preliminary injunction can be granted, Mr. Speaker--
these are rare animals--what happens is, someone goes to court and says 
that because they're going to be hurt so bad, the Federal judge has to 
stop somebody's action. In this case, our own government's action. And 
also, the Federal judge said, probably if there were a trial, the 
plaintiffs--those suing the Federal Government--would prevail on the 
merits and win in a jury trial. Granted the injunction because the harm 
done to the gulf, to the related industries, to the loss of jobs were 
massive and irreparable. When the Federal judge tried to hear what the 
Federal Government said about banning offshore drilling, the judge 
said, ``The government's explanation abuses reason and common sense.'' 
In other words, there was no reason, there is no common sense in the 
almighty Federal Government coming in and banning deepwater drilling in 
the Gulf of Mexico. It made no sense. Mr. Speaker, it makes no sense to 
ban the whole deepwater drilling because of the actions of BP.
  Recently in Texas, we had a BP refinery explode. People were killed. 
Hundreds were hurt. But we didn't close all the refineries in the 
United States because of one accident. It wouldn't make sense. It 
defies reason and common sense. When a plane crashes and people die, 
that's horrible, but we don't close down the airline industry for 6 
months because the Federal Government wants to eventually get around to 
finding out what happened.
  So the Federal judge who ruled in this case did so properly, and it 
was important for him to do so to prevent people from losing jobs. Jobs 
that were lost or would be lost because of the Federal government's 
action, not because of BP's action. So what's the Federal Government 
going to do about this? They're going to appeal. They don't like the 
ruling, so they want to appeal to the Fifth Circuit to try to overrule 
this judge. Why didn't the Federal Government just follow the law and 
allow deepwater drilling and not destroy the economy of the whole 
country because of arrogance and because of the lack of reason and 
common sense?
  So, Mr. Speaker, the disaster in the gulf continues to be the second 
disaster in the gulf for the lack of leadership. We still don't have a 
Federal plan. We don't know what the Federal Government's response is. 
It seems like, to me, FEMA is in charge of all of this because the 
results are always delay, delay, delay, but let's punish deepwater 
drilling.
  The Federal judge's rules will be upheld. The Federal Government 
needs to get with the program, understand there's a sense of urgency, 
find out what caused this problem, not let it happen again, clean up 
the mess, and move on down the road. Meanwhile, follow the law. Don't 
destroy the jobs in the Gulf Coast, and the Federal Government needs to 
get out of the way and let us continue safely to drill offshore and 
provide the energy needs of this country and also provide good working 
jobs for Americans. Otherwise, these jobs will leave the country, go to 
Brazil and Indonesia, and never return.
  And that's just the way it is.

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