Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. FLEMING. I thank the gentleman for allowing me to speak on this important issue, H.R. 1229.

Mr. Chairman, as you know, it is one of a trifecta of bills that we're passing out of the House, once and for all and after 40 years, to begin actually putting together a cogent energy policy for this country. Now, before I talk about it, I do want to make a couple of comments.

Our President has been saying over and over again that our energy production, our oil production is at the highest level it has ever been. Ed Markey, the ranking member of the committee said the same thing. Mr. Salazar of Interior, Mr. Bromwich just the other day, and Ms. Wasserman Schultz said the same thing.

Why are you saying this?

Very clearly, right now we are producing oil at a level of 6 million barrels a day, down from a high in 1972 of 9 million barrels a day; and off the gulf coast, where you claim that production is its highest ever, we were down from 1.7 million barrels a day last year to 1.59 million today, and it will be going down by another 225,000 barrels of oil per day by next year.

For heaven's sake, there's a reason we have a structural increase in the cost of our energy. It is, very simply, that we're constraining the output of oil. So let's get on it. Let's finally start producing oil in this country, and let's become energy independent once and for all.

Louisiana is being hurt in two ways. Number one, of course, is the increasing price of gasoline; but it's also jobs. As the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson) just mentioned, Dr. Joseph Mason from Louisiana State University, from my home State, said that we're looking at a loss of 36,137 jobs over an 18-month period out of the gulf coast alone. In February, Seahawk Drilling, which owned and operated 20 rigs on the gulf coast, filed chapter 11 due to the Obama administration's de facto moratorium.

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Mr. FLEMING. I thank the gentleman.

We have lost 12 rigs so far to such countries as Nigeria, Egypt, the Congo, and Brazil, and guess who we just gave $2 billion to drill oil? Brazil, of all places. So we gave them the rig, we gave them the money so they can drill oil to sell back to us and to put tax money into their coffers. For heaven's sake, this is crazy.

So in conclusion, I'd like to say today, let's get our Louisiana and Texas and other people back to work. Let's invest in our energy across this country, and let's get the gas prices down.

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Mr. FLEMING. I thank the gentleman.

I wanted to respond to a couple of things from the other side. First of all, Mr. Landry and I are both from Louisiana. We are not potted plants. We are actually from a State that is on the coast. In fact, Mr. Landry lives, actually, on the coast. So I think we speak from experience and knowledge on that.

With respect to seafood, yes, there is a problem with the seafood. It's a perception problem. Seafood in Louisiana is the safest seafood in the world. We have just got to get that message out to the American people.

Let's talk about subsidies. We hear about subsidies. Well, you know there is a profiteer when it comes to oil: 36 to 63 cents per gallon is swept off the top. And who profits from that? The government profits from it. And what does the government do with much of that money? It puts it into so-called alternative energy with so-called phony green jobs that we are yet to see being produced, wind and solar, et cetera.

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Mr. FLEMING. Now, it's also been suggested, Well, perhaps we should punish these evil oil companies by taxing them. Mr. Chairman, who pays the taxes? It's the consumers. It's the American people. You add a 10 percent tax to oil exploration or gasoline or whatever, and it's us, it's we--we are the ones who will have to pay that, not the oil companies.

Like any company, they pass these costs along to the consumer. So I want to see gas prices go down, not up, like the other side.

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