[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 10909]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   THE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF TRANSBOUNDARY HYDROCARBON AGREEMENTS 
  AUTHORIZATION ACT (H.R. 1613) AND THE OFFSHORE ENERGY AND JOBS ACT 
                              (H.R. 2231)

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 28, 2013

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, while I support the responsible 
development of our nation's resources, this week's legislation 
prioritizes drilling over protecting investors, improving rig safety, 
respecting coastal communities and conducting appropriate environmental 
review. For these reasons, I will be voting no and encouraging my 
colleagues do the same.
  The Outer Continental Shelf Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreements 
Authorization Act (H.R. 1613) provides specific authorization for the 
recently negotiated U.S.-Mexico transboundary agreement and establishes 
standards for all future offshore oil and gas agreements with potential 
foreign partners like Canada, Russia, the Bahamas and Bermuda. If H.R. 
1613 were a clean bill, it would be completely non-controversial. 
Instead, H.R. 1613 also proposes to waive a provision of the Dodd-Frank 
Act requiring disclosure of otherwise secret payments made to foreign 
governments in connection with oil and gas development. Repealing this 
right-to-know protection is harmful to investors and has no place in 
this otherwise non-controversial legislation.
  The so-called Offshore Energy and Jobs Act (H.R. 2231) would seek to 
open huge swaths of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to drilling--
including waters off my home state of Maryland--as well as a number of 
sensitive areas in Alaska. It would do this without implementing any 
key safety reforms recommended by the bipartisan BP Oil Spill 
Commission and without proper environmental review. Furthermore, it 
would do so at a time when domestic oil production is at a 20-year 
high, domestic gas production is at an all time high, and the oil and 
gas industry is already sitting on 30 million acres of offshore leases 
containing an estimated 17.9 billion barrels of oil and 49.7 trillion 
cubic feet of natural gas it is not yet producing. Rather than focusing 
on a real ``all of the above'' strategy that strengthens our energy 
security through diversifying our energy mix with more clean, homegrown 
renewables, H.R. 2231 reverts to the same reckless ``drill, baby, 
drill'' approach to energy policy that has already been summarily 
rejected by the Senate and is certain to be rejected again.

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