[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 7411-7412]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           OFFSHORE DRILLING

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, today the Senate is going to consider a 
bill to increase offshore drilling. This is the Republican response to 
the Nation's need for a national energy policy and to rising gasoline 
prices. I believe the Republican approach to this will be unsuccessful. 
I believe it overlooks some very fundamental and basic facts, and the 
facts are these: We cannot drill our way out of our problem. If we take 
a look at all the known oil reserves in the United States offshore and 
onshore--all of them--they comprise 2 percent of the known oil reserves 
in the world--2 percent. Now take a look at how much oil the United 
States consumes each year: 25 percent of the world oil production.
  The Republican answer is drill, baby, drill. Honestly, that is not 
going to solve the problem, and it is going to invite some dangerous 
activities that we should know better than to engage in. It has not 
been that long ago that 170 million gallons of oil poured out of a well 
that was improperly drilled by BP in the Gulf of Mexico. The 
devastation that followed to the local economy and to the environment 
is virtually incalculable. Have we learned a lesson--a lesson that 
safety should be the hallmark when it comes to drilling; that we ought 
to make certain that before we go into an environment which is 
precious, where an accident could create some unknown hazard or danger, 
that we thoroughly investigate that in advance. That is not too much to 
ask. We know what is going on in the Gulf of Mexico today as the 
economy is still trying to recover.
  My colleagues on the other side of the aisle who produced the 
McConnell approach--the drill, baby, drill approach--want to just 
forget the spill. They want us to rush into drilling with the same 
reckless practices that led to the spill in the first place. This is 
not going to solve the problem. In fact, it may create more problems.
  If passed, the Republican bill would require the Secretary of the 
Interior to evaluate a permit application in 60 days regardless of its 
complexity--60 days. If the Secretary cannot make a decision within 60 
days, the permit is automatically approved even if it contains 
potential environmental and safety risks. This arbitrary deadline makes 
it impossible for regulators to do the in-depth scientific analysis 
needed to accurately evaluate the risks and safety requirements for 
every application.
  The bill also mandates the sale of offshore oil and gas leases in the 
Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Virginia, and the Arctic Ocean--sales 
that were postponed in order to investigate the potential environmental 
impact.
  Not only does the Republican bill not add any new protocols to ensure 
that increased drilling will be safe, it revokes some of the additional 
requirements that were instituted following

[[Page 7412]]

the BP spill. They have not learned any lesson from what happened in 
the Gulf of Mexico. Essentially, this bill would lead to more offshore 
drilling, with less safety and regulation of the industry. One would 
think that the BP oilspill never happened, if we consider this bill, 
which will be on the floor later today.
  There is really no reason to rush to begin new drilling projects in 
such an irresponsible manner because under President Obama, domestic 
oil production has grown to its highest level in the last 7 years. That 
is right, it has grown to its highest level in the last 7 years. If one 
listened to the other side, one would think the opposite was true--that 
we cut back or stopped drilling. Since February, 34 permits for 14 
unique deepwater wells have been issued under the new safety 
requirements since the BP spill. Oil production in Federal waters has 
increased in both of the last 2 years.
  Last weekend, the President announced several steps the 
administration would take to expand further responsible development of 
domestic energy resources. The Department of the Interior will hold 
lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska by mid-2012, once 
additional analyses have been completed. Extensions will be granted to 
all leases offered by the deepwater suspension, as well as delayed 
leases in Alaska. Annual oil and gas lease sales will be held in 
Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve. And the mid-Atlantic and South 
Atlantic coast will undergo an expedited review for fuel resources. The 
President's actions show we are continuing to expand our domestic 
resources responsibly.
  This careless Republican bill is unnecessary. It is bad policy. The 
bill proposed by Senator McConnell would force us to disregard all the 
lessons we learned from the tragic oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico a 
year ago.
  It has been many years back when I was up in Alaska when the Exxon 
Valdez ran aground in the Prince William Sound and dumped tens of 
thousands of barrels of crude oil into this beautiful place in our 
world. I was up there, and we had workers out. They were literally 
swabbing up the oil off the rocks as it washed up on the shore. They 
wore these yellow slickers, which in no time at all were covered with 
this black crude oil. People with cameras were running around taking 
photos of the workers.
  I went over to an old fellow in one of those yellow slickers who had 
these big swaddling cloths, mopping up the crude oil that had been 
dumped into this beautiful place of Prince William Sound. I said to him 
after the cameras left: Do you think this is helping? He said: Well, I 
think if we didn't do anything, God would take care of this in about 10 
years. By taking extra effort, maybe it will be 9 years and 6 months.
  The point I am making is this: Once the spill has taken place, it 
takes time for nature to restore itself, if it can. In Prince William 
Sound, some species of fish never returned. I do not know what will 
happen in the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps over time nature will heal this 
wound. I hope it does.
  Do we not have a special responsibility as stewards of this planet 
Earth and of this Nation to be careful? Is it too much to ask that we 
engage in fuel efficiency and thoughtful energy policy rather than 
recklessly drill in every direction without asking the hard questions, 
without taking the time for an honest analysis? Not only did the BP 
oilspill despoil that area, it claimed human lives. When it comes to 
safety and environmental responsibility, we should not be cutting 
corners such as the Republican bill would do.
  At the end of the day, even if they could drill every place they 
wanted to drill with no questions asked, it would have virtually no 
impact on gasoline prices. Oil prices are set in the global market, and 
we cannot change them simply by attempting to increase oil production 
when it comes to only 2 percent of the known oil reserves.
  Given the President's recent action and steady increase of 
production, this bill is pointless and dangerous. For this reason, I 
urge my colleagues not to support it and to vote against this measure 
that will be offered later today.

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