Lowering Gasoline Prices to Fuel an America That Works Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. WITTMAN. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Under current law, the Secretary of the Interior is not able to add any additional lease sales to a finalized 5-year plan, even if that area has been included in a draft plan and then withdrawn, so even if the work has been done to look at areas to include, he can't consider that in the final plan.

This amendment is pretty simple. It provides the Secretary of the Interior the ability to add a lease sale to a finalized plan, as long as all of the NEPA requirements have been met on that specific area within the last 5 years.

This is especially applicable to the case of Virginia Lease Sale 220 which, as I stated, was studied and included in the environmental impact statement, though it was later postponed and canceled.

I want to make sure that the Secretary has the ability to add that back into the plan, since all the work has already been done to look at the environmental impacts; and, again, it was included originally in the plan. The flexibility should be there for that to happen.

Should this administration finalize the next 5-year plan early, that would mean the ensuing administration would not have any ability to add lease sales.

This amendment ensures that already studied lease sales can be added to a 5-year plan, as long as existing environmental requirements are met.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and, Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. WITTMAN. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

As the chairman expressed, he is exactly correct. Virginia is interested in being able to develop Lease Sale 220, and it is a bipartisan interest. It is both of our Senators from Virginia, it is our Governor from Virginia, it is our general assembly from Virginia.

There is broad bipartisan support in moving forward with offshore energy production. Virginia has the potential to be a leader in oil and gas development on the east coast.

I, along with many in Virginia, was disappointed when the Department of Interior announced that Virginia would not be included in the 2012-2017 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. It was in the plan originally.

When the final plan came out, Lease Sale 220 was taken out and for no good apparent reason. We want the ability to be able to add it back because all the work has been done to have it there. We want to make sure the flexibility is there for the administration to do that.

The Department's exclusion of Virginia from consideration essentially prevents the creation of thousands of great-paying jobs and around $19.5 billion in Federal, State, and local revenue.

This amendment is a step forward for responsible offshore energy development and assures that decisions can be made in a timely way, especially when all of the environmental evaluation has already been done. We are not asking for any of that to be skipped.

We are asking for the ability to add this into a plan outside of the 5-year window. If this was removed

from the plan for a reason, it ought to have the same opportunity to be included into the plan for a reason. That is what we are asking here, is for that to happen in a reasonable, thoughtful, and concerted way.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and, Madam Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. WITTMAN. Madam Chair, today, in order to maintain our Nation's competitive edge, to generate millions in much-needed revenue and to create millions of new jobs, we simply must move forward with offshore energy development. It just makes sense. There are new areas in our Nation today in which we are not developing that energy, specifically the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf--the mid-Atlantic area.

Just as Mr. Duncan mentioned, it is incumbent upon us to make sure that we are doing the science to determine the extent of those resources. I believe it is a national obligation to develop the resources that we have. Allowing seismic surveying in the Atlantic is an important step toward achieving this goal.

My amendment builds on that effort by promoting offshore seismic surveying through institutions of higher education, especially those that have done so much for our veterans. Specifically, this amendment would allow the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to partner with colleges and universities in the South Atlantic region, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, to promote geological and geophysical educational opportunities. The amendment language specifically gives preference to higher education institutions that admit and educate our Nation's returning veterans.

This is a win-win, folks. It helps develop our Nation's energy resources, and it helps our veterans. The time is now.

These partner schools would be able to conduct offshore geological and geophysical surveys for research purposes. Any data collected would be shared with the government, and it is prohibited from being used for commercial purposes. This language is modeled after existing regulations for seismic surveying that are already in place at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

This amendment promotes STEM educational opportunities and prepares students in the South Atlantic States of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia for the cutting-edge, high-paying jobs of America's energy renaissance. Just as Mr. Duncan spoke about, the time is now for that opportunity.

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Mr. WITTMAN. Madam Chairman, in closing, this is about American jobs; it is about developing our energy; it is about educational opportunities; it is about promoting STEM within our colleges and universities; it is about providing opportunities in Historically Black Colleges and Universities throughout the United States; and it is about providing opportunities for our veterans.

This is a win-win for our Nation. It is an amendment that should be adopted and that should be voted on in favor by every Member of this body.

With that, Madam Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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