Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk. In light of the concern of the chairman of the committee and the whole of the bill, which is his jurisdiction, I respectfully yield to his opinion on how he wants that handled. I would accept…
Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.
In light of the concern of the chairman of the committee and the whole of the bill, which is his jurisdiction, I respectfully yield to his opinion on how he wants that handled.
I would accept the time.
I would like to thank my colleague from West Virginia for his help on this amendment.
Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment to lift the deepwater moratorium for companies that meet the new safety requirements and guidelines recently set in place by Secretary Salazar.
Make no mistake, BP was a bad player. As we have discovered through numerous congressional hearings, this company took dangerous shortcuts to save money. They ignored warning signs and the advice of their own workers who were concerned about the stability of the well, and they continued to drill even when they knew that the safety mechanisms in place to prevent a blowout were not working properly. Eleven good men died because of their greed.
The tragedy on Deepwater opened our eyes to the need for tougher safety regulations for offshore drilling, to the need to strengthen the enforcement of both new and existing laws, and to the need to protect workers who report their companies' dangerous and even illegal practices to regulators so that we can stop another accident before it happens.
Yet an indiscriminate blanket moratorium punishes the innocent along with the guilty for the actions and the poor judgment of one reckless company. If a rig meets all of the tough new safety requirements issued by the Department of the Interior, if it has been fully inspected and deemed safe, why should it sit idle? The workers of that rig, why should they go jobless until the arbitrary 6-month period is over?
People in Louisiana understand that it doesn't make any sense. Louisianans, more than any other people, want to prevent another disaster from happening in our waters, but the irresponsible decisions and the dangerous actions of one company shouldn't shut down an entire sector of our economy, sending thousands of workers to the unemployment line. We need to fix the problems that led to this disaster in the gulf without paralyzing America's domestic energy industry in the process.
That is what my amendment does. Instead of a blanket moratorium, my amendment would allow drilling permits to be approved for those rigs that meet the new tougher safety requirements issued by the Department of the Interior in the wake of the explosion. Those 31 stalled drilling rigs directly employ some 1,400 workers. Hundreds of small businesses in Louisiana service those rigs or are, in some way, supported by the offshore oil and gas industry.
According to research by Dr. Joseph Mason of Louisiana State University, under the current 6-month moratorium, the gulf coast region will lose more than 8,000 jobs, nearly $500 million in wages and over $2.1 billion in economic activity, as well as nearly $100 million in State and local tax revenue--and that's only if the drilling will start back immediately in 6 months.
You don't need to be an economist to see the impact of the moratorium on south Louisiana. You just need to drive through coastal parishes like Lafourche, Terrebonne, or Grand Isle, Louisiana. Talk to people like Shelly Landry, who owns and operates a family grocery store there on Grand Isle. She told me, with tears in her eyes, that the moratorium was shutting down the coast and that it was hurting her business more than the actual oil spill. People like Ms. Landry are still learning to cope with the impact of the oil disaster, and now they feel they are being dealt a second blow--this time by their own government.
Louisiana has a working coast where people make good paychecks producing domestic energy that drives our Nation. They want to get back to work doing the jobs they love, the jobs that provide good lives for their families.
The Childers-Melancon amendment will lift the moratorium in a responsible way and allow our workers to continue producing energy. It will still hold companies accountable for higher safety standards so that we never again experience a disaster such as that like Deepwater.
On behalf of the workers of the gulf coast, on behalf of the small businesses, and on behalf of all of the people of my State who thought they had made it through the worst part of this disaster, I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment to lift this administration's offshore drilling moratorium to make life better and as normal as possible for an area that has been devastated several times over the last several years.
I reserve the balance of my time.
I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from West Virginia, Chairman Rahall.
Parliamentary inquiry.
I would like to thank my colleagues and ask for unanimous consent to consider a revised amendment which addresses the issues they are concerned about.
Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.
Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support the Gulf Coast Restoration Amendment for one simple reason: responsible oil- spill response legislation must include funding to address the rapid deterioration of our crumbling coast.
Coastal erosion has chipped away at our barrier islands, beaches and marshes for decades. Louisiana alone loses a football field of coast every 38 minutes and is set to lose another 500 square miles by 2050. But the BP oil
spill will accelerate land loss as our marshes die from exposure to oil and chemicals from the cleanup. This disaster has effectively hit the fast forward button on an already terrible problem.
BP will foot the bill for the cleanup effort. We will hold them to their responsibility and their word, but they are not legally bound to address the accelerated land loss as a result of the spill. My amendment will make certain they don't simply clean the water and walk away from the long-term damage to our coast and marshes.
My amendment would create a new civil penalty on gulf coast spills of more than 1 million barrels. The owner or operator of the rig would be responsible for paying $200 million per 1 million barrels spilled to fund environmental restoration projects to save the gulf coast. Restoration projects would be spread across the Gulf Coast States and would be overseen by the Gulf Coast Coordination Council, a task force of Federal, State and local stakeholders, created by this bill. My amendment is deficit-neutral and comes at no cost to taxpayers or to the Federal Government.
Survival of the gulf coast's fragile ecosystem and the fishing and tourism industries that rely on them hinges upon successful restoration of our wetlands. Without them, many gulf communities will vanish, and the rest of the country will lose access to the seafood and recreation they have enjoyed for decades.
The gulf coast is America's working coast. We contribute $3 trillion annually to the economy. Seven of our country's top 10 ports are located in the gulf, and 40 percent of our Nation's seafood is harvested from its waters. President Obama has charged the oil spill response team with finding long-term solutions for repairing our coast. Our families back home are depending on Congress to restore their livelihoods, and we have that opportunity today.
Earlier this month, just after news broke that BP had finally capped their well, Bob Marshall of The Times-Picayune wrote a lengthy column about the long road ahead for south Louisiana and this cleanup. He wrote: ``We need to remember this is a temporary problem on top of a permanent disaster. Long after BP's oil is gone, we'll still be fighting for survival against a much more serious enemy--our sinking, crumbling delta. Our coast is like a cancer patient who has come down with pneumonia. That's serious, but curable. After the fever breaks, he'll still have cancer. Our officials' focus should remain on stopping the activities that continue to destroy our marshes and getting national support for projects that can protect what we have left.'' He's right. And make no mistake, this is that time.
Five years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, our country is again focused on a tragedy in south Louisiana. For the past 102 days, every time you opened your paper or turned on the evening news, you saw the well, our oiled marshes and wildlife, and our people, struggling to get through the day and unable to imagine a better tomorrow.
We are staring at a cleanup that will take a decade or more to complete. We will only get there if we address our disappearing coasts. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my Gulf Coast Restoration Amendment. This is that time, and we can't wait another day.
I reserve the balance of my time.
I yield 1 minute to Mr. Oberstar.
I yield 30 seconds to the chairman.
