Opposing Rollback of Safety Standards and Giveaways to Big Oil

Press Release

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said today she is opposing Republican proposals that would force the government to hand out leases for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and off the U.S. East Coast and guarantee tax breaks for big oil companies. The House passed one bill relating to oil drilling last week and will vote on two other bills today. A government study found that rushing leases through would have virtually no effect on gas prices.

"The American people are the ones struggling with high gas prices, not the big oil companies," Pingree said. "We should be focusing on finding new sources of energy that don't depend on oil and not protecting big oil companies at the expense of taxpayers. Oil companies are making record profits and US oil production was at its highest level ever last year. The last thing these big corporations need right now is more handouts and more subsidies."

Pingree has opposed Republican efforts in the House last week and this week that give additional tax breaks to oil companies and allow them to take a shortcut around safety regulations, including provisions that would require the government to grant leases without completing ongoing safety and environmental reviews and legislation that would force areas previously off-limits to drilling to be opened up to the oil companies.

"The supporters of the big oil companies are using high gas prices as an excuse to come up with more giveaways for these giant, highly profitable corporations," Pingree said. "It doesn't help the average family struggling with high gas prices one bit. I find it very frustrating that Congress has to spend three or four days debating these proposals that amount to handouts to oil companies."

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