Date: 2010-07-30
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I want to thank my colleague from Washington State for allowing me 1 minute. Mr. Chairman. I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 3534. the CLEAR Act. because it will kill jobs. increase our reliance on foreign oil. and has become a vehicle for controversial and extraneous provisions that do not address the issues at handthe safety of our offshore oil production. I am proud to represent a district that does everything energy. from constituents who work offshore. to service companies. to refineries. to chemical plants downstream. I strongly support making production safer and cleaner. whether its offshore. on land. or in our industrial facilities. No one questions unlimited liability on the responsible party for all environmental cleanup costs. but this bill goes so far that it would make it unlimited also for whatever economic damage. What is going to happen is it will put at serious risk competitive investment in the Gulf of Mexico and potentially precipitate a future energy affordability crisis. Effective legislation can be achieved that will ensure the continued development of the gulf resources in a responsible and safe manner while preserving the ability of our independent oil and gas exploration and production companies to operate offshore. This legislation will instead make it impossible for these producers. most of which are small businesses. to get insurance to drill and drive hundreds of production and servicing companies out of business. This is the last thing the Gulf Coast and our recovering economy needs. If you want to eliminate jobs and hundreds of small businesses. vote for this bill. Secondly. this bill contains several extraneous provisions that have nothing to do with ensuring the safety of our offshore production. In football. we call this piling on. Section 728 of the bill subjects oil and gas construction activities to storm water discharge permitsa regulatory requirement inappropriate for oil and gas operations. which could place entire projects and significant capital at risk and has nothing to do with safety. This provision mischaracterizes the issue. placing preparatory steps for oil and gas production in the same category as building construction. These are two very different things. The Department of Energy estimates that such regulation could result in the loss of future production up to ten percent of both current U.S. oil production and current U.S. natural gas production. Again. if you want to kill U.S. jobs. vote for this bill. Section 802 of the bill imposes a conservation fee of $2 per barrel of oil. or 20 cents per million BTU of natural gas. for production from all new and existing federal onshore and offshore leases. a cost that will eventually be passed on to consumers. While I am a member of the Sportsmans Caucus and a strong support of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. this fee targets onshore production. which has no place in a bill responding to the BP oil spill. Section 241 compels companies to renegotiate their 19962000 deepwater royalty relief leases or else be ineligible to bid on new leases. This has nothing to do with responding to the BP oil spill. For these reasons and others. I strongly encourage my colleagues to vote against this bill. This bill will kill jobs. hurt our domestic production. and has become a vehicle for controversial and extraneous provisions that do not address the issue at hand.