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House Shreds Offshore Drilling Moratorium ‘Energy Week’ Produces Just a Single Bill That Ignores Solutions, Would Industrialize Coasts Washington, D.C. -- Ignoring Americans’ demands for smart, innovative, clean energy solutions, the U.S. House voted 232-187 today to lift the 25-year moratorium on offshore drilling, just as millions of Americans are headed to America’s beaches for the holiday weekend. The bill, H.R. 4761 sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), shreds the long-standing moratorium, makes states jump through bureaucratic hoops to regain protections they currently enjoy, would allow drilling as close as 3 miles to shore if states choose, and cost the federal government billions of dollars. Solutions as simple as making cars go farther on a gallon of gas and as innovative as harnessing the power of the wind and the sun were completely overlooked. "Americans already believe that their Congress lacks the guts to stand up to Big Oil. Today's vote proves they are absolutely right," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director. The bill replaces the national moratorium with a tiered system: the moratorium line would stop at 100 miles; from 50-100 miles, states would have to actively oppose drilling every five years; states could petition for drilling within 50 miles of the coast. http://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/coasts/threats.asp "At a time when Americans are looking for answers to America’s energy needs, Congress punted," said Pope. "They billed this as ‘energy week,’ but the sadly the only idea they could muster is sticking more oil and gas rigs off our coasts." The House had voted 217-203 to renew the moratorium last month as part of the appropriations process, but Pombo and the oil and gas industry plowed ahead with a bill to revoke the moratorium. Offshore drilling proposals were quickly folded into the once heralded "energy week," a promise made by Congressional leaders months ago to spend the last week of June addressing America’s energy problems. Instead of crafting and debating an array of energy proposals, however, the week has been dubbed "wasted energy week" as offshore drilling was the only major legislation to reach the House floor. Measures to improve efficiency standards for automobiles, buildings and appliances were left on the cutting room floor. "Congress appears to have lost faith in the power of American ingenuity," said Pope. "America has incredible, untapped potential for innovation and can accomplish anything we make a commitment to. It’s time for Congress to make a commitment to smart energy solutions instead of Big Oil." New offshore drilling won’t help address problems today, tomorrow or next year. It’s the slowest, dirtiest and most expensive way to meet our energy needs and it would threaten our beaches with pollution and potential oil spills and destroy billion-dollar tourism and fishing industries. There are faster, cheaper, cleaner and longer-term energy solutions like energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy that will start saving families and businesses money today and protect our coastal waters, beaches and economies. In the seven years we would wait for offshore gas to come online, we could reduce natural gas demand by 8% through efficiency and renewables. http://www.aceee.org/energy/efnatgas-study.htm While Pombo and the Republican leadership were busy spending the so-called "Energy Week" thinking of ways to subsidize Big Oil, they ignored the biggest single step we can take toward saving consumers money at the pump, ending our dangerous oil dependence and curbing global warming: making cars and trucks go farther on a gallon of gas. CAFE was not only ignored by the leadership this week, but the Rules Committee ruled a CAFE amendment to the Pombo bill out of order, despite a call from Rep. Boehlert and 39 other Republicans to consider the Boehlert-Markey CAFE proposal during the drilling debate. That proposal would have raised CAFE to 33 miles per gallon over 10 years time, saving us more oil than we currently import from the Persian Gulf and saving the average driver more than $500 a year. In February President Bush acknowledged the country is ‘addicted to oil,’ and only three months ago Congressional leaders proclaimed this week ‘energy week’ to address America's energy problems. "Passing an offshore drilling bill that only feeds our oil addiction despite recent promises to fix our energy problems shows how fast attention spans shrink in Washington, and how industry’s agenda trumps America’s needs," said Pope. Industry has poured millions of dollars into intense lobbying and misinformation campaigns. The first myth they promote is that oil and gas resources are "off limits" or "locked up." Yet, a close look at the numbers behind their propaganda reveals the truth: industry already has access to the vast majority of the estimated Outer Continental Shelf natural gas resources, including 4 times the amount of natural gas estimated to occur in moratoria areas by the Minerals Management Service. And of the huge resources they have access to, they have developed only a fraction of it. http://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/coasts/factsheets/2006-06_lockedup.pdf The second line of argument is that the oil and gas industry has a good track record and can be trusted to drill in and around fragile coastal waters and wetlands. Hurricane Katrina turns those arguments into lies. MMS assessments of the damage done during Katrina and Rita show that 457 pipelines were damanged and 113 platforms were destroyed. http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2006/press0501.htm This does not take into account the smaller oil spills and air and water pollution that happen every day around offshore drilling operations. It is also a common misperception that the impacts of offshore drilling are concentrated far from eyeshot. Yet offshore drilling means the industrialization of our coastal communities. What follows the rigs are the pipelines, storage facilities, refineries, tankers, liquefied natural gas terminals, and chemical companies. "We will continue our fight to protect America's coasts and advance smart energy solutions and vigorously oppose efforts to pass similarly short-sighted and destructive offshore drilling legislation in the Senate," said Pope. "At this point the Senate has not demonstrated an interest in lifting the moratorium, and there are plenty of reasons for Senators from all states to oppose this bill." For more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/coasts/threats.asp |
