Strategic Production Response Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of the amendment introduced by my friend and colleague, the gentlelady from Virginia.

Virginia is blessed with beautiful coastlines. The Atlantic Coast and Chesapeake Bay provide critical habitat to marine life and offer numerous recreational opportunities to locals and tourists. Virginia's coasts are also home to a growing source of clean, affordable, and domestic energy thanks to ideal windspeeds, shallow waters, shipping lanes free of overhead obstruction, and a talented workforce. Located 27 miles off the coast, the first two turbines in federal waters are not visible from shore. The benefits they generate, however, are increasingly being felt on shore as emissions are lowered and good, family-sustaining jobs are created.

These exciting developments are in sharp contrast to what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have planned for our coastal communities--an expansion of offshore drilling. We ought to learn from the tragic mistakes of our past: Exxon Valdez in the Prince William Sound, Santa Barbara off the coast of Southern California, and Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico.

Throughout my career, I have opposed attempts to open Virginia's coastline to offshore drilling along with local communities, small businesses, scientists, beachgoers, environmentalists, seafood lovers, and people of faith. The Virginia Beach Restaurant Association, the Virginia Beach Hotel Association, and the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association all oppose offshore drilling along with Oceana, the Sierra Club, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Surfrider Foundation, Virginia Interfaith Power & Light and so many others. National security experts also warn that offshore drilling is incompatible with military training in the region, not to mention the incredible harm a spill would do to military facilities.

As sea levels in Norfolk and around the world continue to rise, any expansion of highly polluting fossil fuel infrastructure is simply a bad idea. Virginians are simply not willing to sacrifice the health of our climate, marine life, local economies, or coastal ecosystems to expand offshore drilling.

The growth of offshore wind in the region further underscores the false choice being presented by my Republican colleagues. Virginians are already enhancing our energy security by harnessing the power of the wind. Thanks to the investments in the Inflation Reduction Act-- including provisions I introduced with Representatives Pascrell, Norcross, Luria, and the late Congressman McEachin--the future of offshore wind and domestic offshore wind manufacturing is bright.

Virginians have repeatedly stood together to protect our coasts and, as this amendment demonstrates, we will continue to do so. I urge my colleagues to protect Virginia's coasts by supporting this amendment.

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