Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chairman, let me first thank the sponsor of this legislation, Mr. Cunningham, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lowenthal), and Mr. Grijalva for all of their work on this legislation.

I want to say that I do think a permanent moratorium on oil and gas drilling in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans' Outer Continental Shelf planning areas is something that we must do. It doesn't matter whether you represent the Atlantic or the Pacific Coast communities. A vote for a permanent moratorium on oil and gas development along these shores is a vote for our country's economic vitality.

I heard my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and the last two speakers talk about national security and how we don't have an energy plan. The bottom line is that, if you look at the consequences to the economy of the country in these coastal communities from something like the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, it was a 10-year projected economic loss of $8.7 billion in fisheries from Texas to Florida, including 22,000 lost jobs just for fisheries.

Think of the impact on the tourism industry with the impact on local businesses if we have a spill of this magnitude. Tourism is now the number one industry in my State of New Jersey.

And don't tell me that we don't have an energy plan. In the Energy and Commerce Committee, we are very much in favor of all kinds of energy options--natural gas, nuclear power, whatever it happens to be-- and we certainly have moved towards energy independence by having more natural gas and more production of oil.

All we are saying here today is that, when you talk about offshore drilling in the Atlantic and the Pacific, if you weigh any benefits that might come either in jobs or in money that comes back to the Land and Conservation, whatever, you cannot possibly compare the economic loss that we would have from a major oil spill to whatever gain you have from this relatively small amount of oil that is going to be captured by these oil companies in offshore drilling on the Atlantic and the Pacific Coasts.

After the BP oil spill--I was on the Natural Resources Committee at the time--there were recommendations that were put together by a bipartisan commission. Not all of those were adopted. But even with those recommendations, in the 7 years following the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, there were 34 additional oil spills of more than 2,000 gallons each.

There is no way to stop these oil spills from happening. They happen on a regular basis. The further out you go, the more chance there is that you are going to have a spill, and we cannot risk that.

The Jersey shore has already experienced a historic disaster in the past few years. It was called Hurricane Sandy. We don't need a man-made disaster that is going to shut down our businesses, cripple our housing market, harm our health, or hurt our environment. The ocean is strained too much by too much trash and disposal of plastics and the climate crisis that triggered an increase in sea temperatures and acidification.

In fact, we don't have to choose between a clean ocean and energy production. Any energy we harness off the coast could come increasingly from clean, renewable sources like offshore wind.

I am not saying that renewables are the only alternative. We still have to have fossil fuels, there is no question. But the damage that comes to our local economies cannot possibly compare to whatever jobs you think are going to be created or whatever money you think is going to come from this offshore drilling. It is miniscule in comparison to the economic impact to our area.

So don't talk to me about jobs and loss of jobs when you see the loss of jobs that occurred after BP and could occur to our shores. There is absolutely no comparison, gentlemen. I have to say that over and over again.

Now, we have put 1-year annual moratoriums. We passed an amendment that I had in the appropriations bill, Interior appropriations, to have a moratorium on an annual basis in the appropriations bill, but it is high time that we have a permanent moratorium. It is not enough to just address this annually through the appropriations process.

Mr. Chairman, I want to particularly commend the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Cunningham). I was actually in his district, and I just heard unanimous praise of his effort to stop this drilling.

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