The Outer Continental Shelf Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreements Authorization Act (H.R. 1613) and the Offshore Energy and Jobs Act (H.R. 2231)
Floor Speech
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, while I support the responsible development of our nation's resources, this week's legislation prioritizes drilling over protecting investors, improving rig safety, respecting coastal communities and conducting appropriate environmental review. For these reasons, I will be voting no and encouraging my colleagues do the same.
The Outer Continental Shelf Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreements Authorization Act (HR 1613) provides specific authorization for the recently negotiated U.S.-Mexico transboundary agreement and establishes standards for all future offshore oil and gas agreements with potential foreign partners like Canada, Russia, the Bahamas and Bermuda. If HR 1613 were a clean bill, it would be completely non-controversial. Instead, HR 1613 also proposes to waive a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act requiring disclosure of otherwise secret payments made to foreign governments in connection with oil and gas development. Repealing this right-to-know protection is harmful to investors and has no place in this otherwise non-controversial legislation.
The so-called Offshore Energy and Jobs Act (HR 2231) would seek to open huge swaths of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to drilling--including waters off my home state of Maryland--as well as a number of sensitive areas in Alaska. It would do this without implementing any key safety reforms recommended by the bipartisan BP Oil Spill Commission and without proper envitonmental review. Furthermore, it would do so at a time when domestic oil production is at a 20 year high, domestic gas production is at an all time high, and the oil and gas industry is already sitting on 30 million acres of offshore leases containing an estimated 17.9 billion barrels of oil and 49.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas it is not yet producing. Rather than focusing on a real ``all of the above'' strategy that strengthens our energy security through diversifying our energy mix with more clean, homegrown renewables, HR 2231 reverts to the same reckless ``drill, baby, drill'' approach to energy policy that has already been summarily rejected by the Senate and is certain to be rejected again.
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