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“OIL DRILLING NEEDED IN GULF OF MEXICO” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H5661-H5668 on July 15, 2010.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
OIL DRILLING NEEDED IN GULF OF MEXICO
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Madam Speaker, the spill in the gulf coast has produced an environmental tragedy, and obviously losing the lives of 11 American workers has been devastating for the families. Our prayers are with them.
The gulf coast right now, the priority of America has to be stopping the oil from gushing, and it seems to be making progress there, protecting our beaches and marshes. But we have a new threat to the Gulf of Mexico and America, especially its workers, and this is the White House's moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
According to the Federal courts, the moratorium has been stayed. It was overly broad without much scientific basis. It didn't result in anything more safe or secure for the gulf. But nonetheless, the Secretary of the Interior has issued a new moratorium, thumbing his nose at the courts and really creating a broader moratorium that has stopped drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
The impact of this is that American rigs are leaving the Gulf of Mexico, and U.S. jobs with it. Capital will soon follow and, ultimately, if the moratorium is allowed to go its full 6 months until the end of the year, we will see a significant, severe dismantling of America's energy infrastructure, future higher gas prices, and we will be ceding more of our energy independence to Middle East and foreign oil.
The truth of the matter is, today, the Gulf of Mexico has been extraordinarily safe to explore for America's traditional energy, our oil and gas. Over 50,000 wells have been drilled in the Gulf of Mexico. This is the first major spill. Over 14,000 deepwater wells have been drilled around the world. This is the first major spill. And just as you don't stop all automobile production because there is a problem with one model, the White House, unfortunately, has stopped all energy production in the gulf because of the disaster with British Petroleum. And the impact on our jobs and our economy is severe. They are laying off workers today. Small businesses are struggling to survive. Rigs are being deployed overseas.
Joining me today to talk about the impact to this economy is Congressman John Culberson of Houston, as well. He and I were in a roundtable last week with a number of our small, midsize, independent businesses who are already laying off workers and redeploying resources as a result of this terrible moratorium that unfortunately is turning an environmental disaster, making it worse by creating an economic disaster, not just in the Gulf of Mexico but one that will reach throughout the United States.
So I yield to the gentleman from Texas, Mr. John Culberson.
Mr. CULBERSON. Thank you, Mr. Brady. Thank you for the invitation, for putting together the roundtable with industries in the Houston area who are part of the oil and gas industry.
We, in Houston, know that our city is to the energy industry what Silicon Valley is to the computer industry, and there are jobs, not just throughout southeast Texas and Louisiana but throughout the Nation, that are dependent on the oil and gas industry. We, as a Nation, are dependent upon the oil and gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico for--I've seen numbers as high as 80 percent of the oil that the United States--where does that 80 percent number come from, Kevin, of the oil and gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico? What percentage of the oil and gas consumed by the United States comes out of the Gulf of Mexico?
Mr. BRADY of Texas. I think we probably produce about 30 percent. Much of the specialty oil is for jet fuel and a number of our fuels.
Mr. CULBERSON. That's what I remember. The jet fuel is particularly vital.
And, Kevin, we found out in the roundtable you held in Houston last week, as you said, jobs are being lost as we speak. We, as a Nation, are going to lose those jobs permanently. The infrastructure, the rigs themselves, particularly the semisubmersible floating rigs, are tremendously expensive to operate and maintain, and they are already leaving.
Kevin, what did we learn? What did you hear about what's happening to these offshore rigs? Where are they going if we don't reverse this moratorium and stop it?
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Already, Diamond Offshore's announced that the first rig is leaving the United States for Egypt. They are already leaving, planning to leave others for West Africa, the Middle East, Brazil, and those points. And as they made the point, these rigs, you have them for a limited amount of time. They are well sought out for around the world. And when they leave, they don't come back for years.
And with them are our energy workers, the companies that support them, American businesses that sell to them and ship to them and provide those services. And as we know, the rest of the world, including state-owned enterprises in China, is now aggressively swooping in to bid for these rigs which, again, takes away our jobs and our prosperity.
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Mr. CULBERSON. Once they're gone, those rigs will be almost impossible to bring back to the United States. The world's appetite for oil is going to continue for some time. All of us are committed to an all-of-the-above energy policy that encourages development in the intermediate term of alternative energy sources and the longer term, developing innovative new technologies like the quantum wire project, the extraordinary promise that carbon nano-tubes hold for transmitting electricity ballistically. There are so many new technologies that we have as a Nation great opportunity, great promise to invest in, but that's down the road.
Right now, it is vitally important for our Nation's strategic security that we continue to find and develop every natural resource we can here in the United States. The Gulf of Mexico, our offshore waters has produced so much of this Nation's oil and gas.
We're joined by our good friend Mr. Scalise from Louisiana; and since as the one controlling the time, if I could call on Mr. Scalise to verify, as I've heard it, 99.99 percent of the oil produced in the offshore waters of the United States has been produced cleanly, safely, without an incident, and this is the very first incident of its kind. Tragic and catastrophic as it is, it is the very first. It like an airplane falling out of a clear blue sky, and you would no more ground all aircraft if a plane fell out of the sky for no good reason than you would shut down all drilling
And I would like to ask Mr. Scalise to join us and talk about the safety record of producing oil and gas safely and cleanly in offshore waters of the United States.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. I would like to yield to the gentleman from Louisiana who has been a leader on this effort both in trying to compel the Federal Government's response to local and State communities and to keep and protect their beaches and marshes but also to try to stop our energy jobs, our families in the gulf area that have been hurt from being hurt further.
I yield to Congressman Scalise.
Mr. SCALISE. I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding. I thank both of my colleagues for talking about this important issue because right now as we're battling what is already a human tragedy with eleven deaths, an environmental tragedy, probably the worst in the country's history, we're trying to battle to keep the oil out of our marsh and our seafood beds and the estuaries where the pelicans nest. We're also now fighting a new battle and that's an economic battle against this moratorium on all energy exploration in not only deep water but shallow water, which is going on.
So what we've been trying to point out is that, in fact, if you look at the safety recommendations that were made by the President's own scientific panel right after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, the President assembled a team of scientists, engineers, experts that he picked--we didn't pick, he picked--to come back with a 30-day safety report, report on how to improve safety on the rigs and recommendations on drilling.
In fact, they came back with those recommendations. The interesting part was that many of the recommendations that they came back with are things that are already being implemented out there in the gulf by companies who have a safety record that is much different than BP, companies that have been in even deeper water. The Deepwater Horizon was in 5,000 feet below the surface. There are companies drilling in 10,000 feet that haven't had any problems because they do follow a different set of safety standards. In fact, they have a very high bar for safety.
As you were talking about, over 2,500 wells have been drilled in the deep water, many more, over 50,000 all across the gulf, but over 2,500 wells in the deep water, and yet this is the first time you've had an incident like this. And it's because the companies that are out there, unlike BP, have a different safety approach and haven't cut corners and haven't done the things that led to this disaster.
So as we're trying to find out what went wrong, we already know many of the things that went wrong and what needs to be done to stop it from happening again, not by reinventing the wheel, but actually going and looking at those companies who are already doing it the right way.
And, in fact, that's what the President's group of scientists came back with in their safety report. So we embrace those safety changes that were recommended that most of the industry is already using; but another thing that the President's commission said was the majority of those members said they oppose this moratorium on drilling, and they did it for a number of reasons, but one of the things they point out that's been interesting and hasn't been talked about in this whole debate is, it's not just all the loss of jobs, because there's a tremendous loss of jobs, over 40,000 good, high-paying jobs in Louisiana alone, and I know in Texas it's an even bigger number.
But they point out, the scientists the President appointed said that it would actually reduce safety in the Gulf of Mexico by having a moratorium. Whereas, the Secretary of the Interior tries to call it a pause, he says, we'll just do a 6-month pause, and if there's some magical pause button you can press and then take your hand off 6-months later and the industry magically reappears. The industry will not magically reappear.
What's already happening today is companies are leaving the Gulf of Mexico to go to foreign countries: Brazil, West Africa, many other nations that are competing for these very scarce resources. You have 33 deep water rigs, many of these are assets of half a billion to a billion dollars each, and their operating costs are half a million dollars a day to a million dollars a day. They can't just afford to sit idle.
So what they're doing is they are starting to lay off employees, starting to move to foreign countries, and what that does, number one, it makes our country less safe because it reduces America's energy independence. Our demand for oil in this country hasn't dropped, and I want to support all the alternatives in wind and solar and nuclear, everything, all of the above, but in the meantime our demand in this country hasn't dropped for oil. And so as we reduce the supply by maybe 20 percent, that means we're importing more oil from foreign countries who don't like us.
And how does that oil get here? It doesn't magically appear. It has to come in from supertankers and these big barges that bring in the oil, and 70 percent of all spills of oil come from tankers, not from the drilling. So you have actually increased the likelihood of spills.
But the other side of that is why you also reduce safety is your most experienced crews, your most safe and technologically advanced rigs are the ones that leave first. So you lose your rigs, you lose the experience of those 10- to 20-year employees, people that understand drilling better than anybody in the world. They're not going to sit around idle for 6 months collecting unemployment as the President suggested. They're going to go find work somewhere else, maybe they're going to go to these other countries and so we lose all of that experience. And if you then 6 months later remove your hand from some mysterious pause button, you don't have an industry left and we don't have any experience left; and if you start drilling, you're doing it with people without experience, without those new rigs.
So it poses tremendous damage, not only economically for the jobs lost, but it also poses safety challenges and safety problems by having this pause, as the President calls it, on drilling. It's a horrible policy. It is making our country less energy secure, and it's creating a bigger dependence on Middle Eastern oil
Mr. CULBERSON. If I could, I want to visit with you because you are so knowledgeable about this. The States of Louisiana and Texas, as you know, have played such a vital role in producing oil and gas offshore.
You serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and I wanted to ask, isn't it true that the committee, your committee, other committees of Congress, have come to no conclusion as to the cause of this accident, and even though we don't know what caused it yet, the President's imposed a blanket moratorium, shutting down all drilling; is that correct?
Mr. SCALISE. It's correct that there is not a final report. There are a lot of groups out there doing investigations. The Federal Government is, private institutions are, a lot of different investigations are going on as there should be. But we know many of the things that caused the problems on that rig on the Transocean-BP Horizon, and in fact, they were preventable. And that's the sad part of this is that this was a preventable disaster; and if you look at what the companies do that are in deeper waters, that don't have the safety problems BP had, it's because they do things the right way, a much safer way, and that's what we should be following.
We should go and look to what the President's own safety commission came back with. Unfortunately, the President, when he got that 30-day report back from his scientists and engineers, it didn't give him I guess the results he wanted. It didn't suggest a moratorium, and he just wanted to do one anyway. So he threw away the science and trumped science with politics, and that's a sad state of affairs for our country to be in where we're ignoring science that actually recommends the right way to go for safety, and the President chose a path for a less safe approach that actually throws jobs away and makes our country more dependent on Middle Eastern oil.
Mr. CULBERSON. Which his own commissioned opposed and which flies in the face of the record, tremendous record of safety and cleanliness of producing oil and gas offshore in the gulf. Again 99.99 percent of all the oil and gas produced in offshore waters of the United States have been produced cleanly, safely, even during giant hurricanes, when there were underwater landslides in the gulf. In particular, I remember Hurricane Ivan, which caused underwater landslides and severed oil pipelines underneath the Gulf of Mexico. There were no leaks. They have got a tremendous record of safety because they follow guidelines. All of these rigs as a rule follow the guidelines of the IPAA. The Independent Petroleum Association of America has safety guidelines that are followed by offshore drilling rigs.
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They have got a tremendous record of safety. I am not sure of any other energy industry that has got a better safety record than the oil and gas industry, other than perhaps the nuclear industry. This catastrophic tragic accident is one we need to obviously make sure doesn't happen again, but not in such a blanket, destructive way.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, this moratorium's impact on our economy is greater than most imagined. It is not just along the Gulf Coast. But imagine, if you will, you have at this point both the 33 deepwater rigs that are now idle, leaving America, along with our American workers and our American vendors, but in the shallow waters, which has even a more sterling record of safe and secure exploration, which now is also idle because the Interior Department is not providing permitting in any timely fashion at all. So those rigs are going away, those workers are going away, and that impact is deep.
On any one of those deepwater rigs, you have got at least 1,500 workers tied directly to the rig, Congressman Culberson, and more beyond that. Each rig may have 1,000 vendors supplying and servicing it, vendors throughout the United States. I am going to talk about that in a few moments with a map we have here on the floor as well.
These companies are not the big companies. These are family-owned businesses, small and medium-sized businesses. They are already starting to lay off workers. They are already redeploying, as I think Halliburton and Schlumberger, or Halliburton Baker Hughes said they have already been forced to relocate some 4,000 jobs. And offshore development impacts at least 170,000 jobs, all of which are at risk with this moratorium.
As small businesses have told us, who said, I have already laid off 20 percent of my workforce. Next week I lay off 50 percent of my workforce. What small business in America, what industry, can hope to survive without six months of its revenues?
Mr. CULBERSON. That is a key point.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. The answer is none. Maybe the big guys can, but most companies cannot. So at a time when we have almost 10 percent unemployment, people are desperately looking for work, here we have a White House policy that puts at risk 150,000 good-paying American jobs or more that will impact every State in the Nation.
By the way, Congressman Culberson, there have been studies that talk about what the impact is in various areas. If you think about it, the average salary in the Gulf of Mexico for petroleum-related workers is almost $118,000, average annual salary. Some of those are roughnecks, those who may not even have a high school education, who are getting
$70,000, $80,000 salaries. It is a tough job. It is hard work. But it not only produces fuel to drive America's prosperity, but it gives them an opportunity to raise their family, to live the American dream, to put their kids through college, to own their own home. Those jobs are now at risk.
And who is fighting for them? It seems to me the White House, so far, and I hope it changes, has a deaf ear to these American workers. These are U.S. energy workers. There are more than 2 million of them around America. But with this moratorium, as the rigs leave, as the jobs go, as our vendors and small businesses go as well, many of those are not coming back for years. And with it goes the capital, the funding from companies who have to decide soon whether they put money into exploring in the Gulf of Mexico or over in Brazil or West Africa or somewhere else around the world.
Also with the rigs and capital and jobs goes our brain power. We worry about a brain drain of America's best and brightest, energy research and workers that will go. And then ultimately when that leaves, the energy headquarters leave as well, which in many communities along the Gulf of Mexico, make up such a big part, good-
paying part of our economy.
So this moratorium, the refusal to allow permits, sort of the tin ear on allowing these safe wells to go back to work, is having a devastating impact.
I have invited, and I know you support this, I have invited President Obama to come to Houston, Texas, to meet with our energy workers, those whose jobs have been lost or are at risk. Just as he has visited every State along the Gulf, come to Texas to see the economic spill of his policy, the economic devastation that is beginning, and can be changed and can be averted, not by stopping a well from gushing, but by stopping bad policy, overly broad, that costs U.S. American jobs throughout the country, raises energy prices, makes us more dependent on countries that frankly don't care much for us.
I yield to you, congressman.
Mr. CULBERSON. Congressman Brady, I know you have seen, as I have, these countries where these rigs are going overseas. The companies themselves also have got high standards. They are going to maintain a safe, clean environment for their workers and produce oil as safely and cleanly as they can.
But common sense tells you, where are they going to have better, cleaner standards for producing oil and gas: In Indonesia, or off the coast of Louisiana and Texas? Where are the standards going to be better to protect the environment: Here in the United States or in a Third World nation where they are not as concerned with protecting the environment as we are here in America?
I had a chance to work on offshore rigs in the summers in college as what is called a mudlogger, sort of a well-side geologist. It was great work. These are great jobs. I had a chance to experience it firsthand and see the level of commitment of these men and now women that work on the rigs and in the offshore industry that know better than anybody how to make sure a well doesn't blow out.
No one has a greater stake in protecting the safety of their workers, in protecting the environment, in producing oil and gas safely and cleanly, than the companies themselves. The liability that they are exposed to is immense. They care deeply about the safety of their workers.
The rigs that I worked on offshore were both jack-up rigs and semisubmersible rigs. And this was in the late 1970s and 1980s, right before the bottom dropped out and oil got so cheap and a lot of the service companies disappeared because of the price of oil declining so rapidly. But the technology today is so amazing that we are enabled to drill at the depths that the Deepwater Horizon was drilling in, Congressman Brady.
I have to wonder as a conservative, as a Texan, watching this administration not let any crisis go to waste, and remembering, as I do, Congressman Brady, when last summer or the summer before the last election, that Speaker Pelosi and this liberal majority had shut down all offshore drilling in the United States.
And you remember when the Congress adjourned in the summer of 2008, Kevin, I remember you coming on to the House floor with your suitcase. Remember we stayed down here and kept talking to force the Speaker and this liberal majority to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. We stayed down here and talked to the gallery. We used our social media devices to talk to the country on Twitter and Facebook and Quick.
The country responded. The Nation supports, the Nation understands the importance of producing American oil and gas. The country supports drilling in offshore waters, continues to support drilling in the offshore waters of its United States. Despite this catastrophic, terrible accident, the Nation understands that this is an anomaly, that this is something that does not happen, it has not happened in all the many years that we have been producing oil and gas in the offshore waters of the United States.
And that last summer, that August of 2008, Congressman Brady, when the House had adjourned and we stayed down here and kept talking, ultimately we forced the leadership of the House to reverse its position and withdraw temporarily their ban on offshore drilling. Yet as soon as this administration actually gets back in place and the first chance they get when they have a catastrophic accident offshore, what do they do, in opposition to the recommendation of their own commission? Without knowing the exact cause of the accident, they impose a blanket moratorium, stopping all drilling.
It literally is as though you stop all airplane flights when a DC-10 falls out of the air in the clear blue sky, a catastrophic, terrible accident. But it is a particular type of aircraft, and you would want to find out what caused that particular type of aircraft to fall out of the sky.
Instead, this administration's knee-jerk reaction, taking advantage of this crisis I believe to achieve their bigger, their long-term goal as liberals to shut off as much domestic oil and gas production and exploration as they can, they have imposed this moratorium, so destructive, so shortsighted, so damaging, not only to the economy of the Gulf Coast States, Congressman Brady, but to the Nation, driving up the price of oil and gas, driving up the price of gasoline, driving American jobs overseas, driving these rigs overseas where the wells will be drilled in areas of the world where they do not have the concern, they do not have the restrictions on protecting the environment that we do here in the United States.
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The liberals are so obsessed with stopping all drilling in the United States I believe, that's where this moratorium comes from, and we, the American people, understand how shortsighted and how destructive it is.
In fact, one other aspect that we need to be sure to educate people about, Madam Speaker, as a part of the overall policy of this Congress, this liberal majority in Congress, that we talked about earlier today, Congressman Brady, is the effort of this Congress to prohibit fracturing of formations. There is this general direction of the Obama administration, under the Obama-Pelosi regime, to shut down as much domestic oil and gas production and exploration as they can. They even want to make it illegal to fracture formations, which would devastate the production of natural gas in the United States.
In fact, Congressman Brady, I see here on the USGS Web site, when you look up how much recoverable oil is available in North Dakota and Montana's Bakken Formation, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Bakken Formation has an estimated 3 to 4 billion barrels, quoting, of undiscovered technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation. Yet if this majority has its way, they would prohibit fracturing thousands of feet deep, far below any fresh drinking water, fracturing those formations and allowing us to get access to that recoverable oil and gas.
This moratorium on offshore drilling is devastating to the gulf, damaging to the Nation, but part of what I see, a larger pattern of behavior by this administration, by this Congress, until we can replace them come January, to shut down all domestic oil and gas exploration.
Is that consistent with what you are seeing and hearing?
Mr. BRADY of Texas. The cost of the drilling moratorium in human lives and jobs, the impact on people's lives and families, is devastating. We face other immediate threats to America's energy future within the next several weeks: The Blowout Prevention Act, through the efforts of Congressman Joe Barton and others, working with Congressman Henry Waxman and others, I think has become a more manageable or acceptable bill. A real concern still exists. The Oil Spill Accountability Act, which will stop exploration in America's gulf; energy taxes that will force, or really drive U.S. energy jobs to other countries. All of this will have a huge impact.
Can I talk for a moment, though, about the lives that are already being affected? We know that the lives of those 11 workers that have been lost, praying for their families and their recovery are a top priority for us. Stopping that spill from gushing further. Protecting the beaches and marshes and seabeds and trying to help the gulf States communities recover have to be our priority. The question is, do we make it worse for the gulf by a moratorium? The answer is yes.
Here is the impact on jobs. Just in the short time the moratorium has been in place, I talked about how companies are redeploying thousands of workers to other countries. As National Oceans Industry Association Chairman Burt Adams said, ``There is right now no clear path for deepwater exploration companies to follow. Until such a path exists, exploration is at a standstill and more jobs will be lost.''
Aker Solutions has workers in Texas now; in Alabama. They have had to refocus their efforts on international projects to compensate for the loss of exploring in the moratorium. Their offshore services work is coming to a halt already. They have about 750 employees in Texas and Alabama, but they are now going elsewhere with their work.
ATP Oil & Gas Corporation, the moratorium caused this company to stop drilling a natural gas development well and release the rig. It went away. The well would have produced 40 million cubic feet of gas daily for America. ATP estimates that they will be penalized about $30 million because of the moratorium and lose over $1 million of revenue a day.
Bollinger Shipyards, family-owned and operated since 1946, employs 3,000 American workers. They say, ``In the 64 years of our existence, we have never been faced with such an uncertain future. This moratorium has created an environment leaving Bollinger Shipyards no choice but to downsize our company, thereby eliminating good-paying jobs.''
Mr. CULBERSON. Where are they located?
Mr. BRADY of Texas. They are in Texas, I believe. It doesn't say so right there, I should say.
CapRock Communications. They will be forced to redeploy personnel to different regions or support them finding some other way. They have over 50 field service and operations personnel supporting clients in the Gulf of Mexico; employ 750 people throughout Houston, Lafayette and New Orleans.
C&C Technologies, they expect to layoff approximately 10 employees to begin with; will not be hiring the dozen or so workers they expected to hire. So they're laying off workers and we're missing an opportunity to put even more people back to work.
Cobalt International Energy with their exploration, their drilling rigs, services, vessels, tools and people that were contracted to support the drilling programs, all have been released. We talked about the rigs go, the jobs go, the businesses go and the capital leaves America. Cobalt will shift its capital spending program and resources to West Africa, because they have no choice. This White House, this government, is forcing them overseas. Again, as you pointed out, those are not only U.S. energy workers but U.S. energy that's leaving with Cobalt.
Davis-Lynch, Incorporated has locations throughout Lafayette, Houston, Corpus Christi. This moratorium leaves them no alternative other than to implement another reduction in their workforce. They employed over 300 people last year, had to cut 100, were starting to hire people back. Now that is being reversed.
Delmar Systems, operations 100 percent directly related to this, to the deepwater semi-submersibles in the Gulf of Mexico. It will directly affect their ability to operate.
Heerema Marine Contractors, their business future is in a state of uncertainty here in the United States. They employ people in Texas and Louisiana.
I will go on and on here a little later, but the point is these are real American workers. These are real American businesses. Some family-
owned, some mid-size, some larger. But the economic devastation. I sometimes wonder, are people as important as turtles and birds? We all love our wildlife and are fighting to protect them, but shouldn't we be fighting to protect American workers and their livelihoods? How about American small businesses and their livelihoods? What about their ability to survive, to employ workers? How about an energy worker who had nothing to do with the BP spill, who no longer has a job, no longer has a future, can't put their kids through college? Mr. President, don't those workers count, too? And why won't you come to Texas and meet with them? Why won't you pay as much attention to them as you do other regions and wildlife? These lives and their livelihoods are at stake. They are already paying a price. They didn't ask for this. The energy industry did not cause this spill. British Petroleum experienced this spill. We ought not punish innocent American workers, communities, our future, force higher energy prices, become more dependent on some of America's worst enemies because of a terrible policy response, moratorium, to what has been an environmental and human tragedy of our own making now, an economic disaster of this government's own making.
I would yield.
Mr. CULBERSON. Congressman Brady, I couldn't agree with you more. That is so well said. But I wanted to also make the point, Madam Speaker, make sure all Americans listening understand, Congressman Brady, that this moratorium is not just shutting down deepwater drilling. All of the companies that we have visited with, all of the industries that are involved with drilling and producing, finding, drilling, producing oil and gas in the offshore waters of the United States are telling us that this moratorium has had the effect of shutting down and stopping all permitting in shallow as well as deep water.
Isn't that correct, Congressman Brady? Talk a little bit about that.
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Mr. BRADY of Texas. It is. Well, because they're not permitting. As you know, initially, the moratorium, over the advice of a number of scientists, was extended to both the shallow and deep waters. And then it was lifted in the shallow waters. But no permitting has really--no permit of significance has occurred. So those rigs are idle and going away.
Now the whole moratorium was stayed by the Federal courts and the new moratorium now was put in place. Shallow and deep waters are essentially shut down. And, again, what that means to the rest of America is that workers' jobs are shut down, the ability to provide energy supplies for America is shut down, and our dependence on other countries for our daily energy needs is increased every day because of our wrong-headed government policy.
Mr. CULBERSON. The Obama administration has therefore shut down, Congressman Brady, all offshore permitting, all offshore drilling in all the continental waters of the United States. That's essentially where we are.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. It is. There is very little activity at all going on.
Mr. CULBERSON. Imagine if you are, Mr. Speaker, a business owner, a banker, someone who wants and needs and is prepared to make a significant investment because these are tremendously expensive operations to drill in either shallow--or in the deep water they're even more expensive--imagine you want to make that investment but you're, A, not sure is the permit deep or shallow. Well, it has now been rewritten by the Obama administration, attempting to circumvent the Federal court's order stopping the moratorium. The administration has simply rewritten their moratorium to bypass the court order.
So if you as a company are trying to make this significant investment, significant amount of money, you have no way of knowing when or if permits are ever going to be issued, what type of permits are possibly ever going to be issued. They're just going to leave. The money, as Congressman Brady has said so eloquently, will go overseas. The rigs, the equipment, the jobs, the talent, the skilled American jobs that have worked; people in families generation after generation that have worked in the offshore oil industry in the United States will just leave. They're gone.
Again, I know this firsthand. I've met these men and women. I know how committed they are to finding and producing oil and gas cleanly and safely. And no one has got a bigger stake than they do.
Mr. RANGEL. Might I ask my colleague from Texas whether he could yield to me 5 minutes for the purposes of making a statement?
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I will kindly yield to the gentleman from New York.
Mr. RANGEL. I can't thank you enough, Congressman, for this courtesy that you've extended, especially in view of the great contribution that you make on the committee and in the Congress. And I want to thank you for bringing to attention of the American people the sacrifices that so many are making as a result of the incident that's taking place in the Gulf.
But, Mr. Speaker, I rise to alert the House that, once again, I have introduced legislation to reinstate the draft and to make it permanent during time of war. It is H.R. 5741. And what this does is to make everyone between the ages of 18 and 42, whether they're men or women, whether they're straight or gay, to have the opportunity to defend this great country whenever the President truly believes that our national security is threatened.
During the last few weeks and months, as we have gone through a heat wave in the Northeast, I could not but think of the tens of thousands of Americans that find themselves in the Middle East just hoping and praying that the extent of their inconvenience and suffering was just being in the heat of being back home with their loved ones. And they are so dedicated and there are so few of them that many of them have gone back into combat once, twice, even up to six times. To me, that's asking a whole lot from such a small part of our population. And I truly believe that if people thought for one minute that our Nation was in trouble, that age would not even be a factor in people saying, Count me in, because this great country has been so good to me that whatever we can do, we want to be able to make some type of sacrifice.
And it just seems to me that when Presidents come and say that in their opinion the country has to go or should go, or makes a request to go to war, then ultimately it will be the people of this House and the Senate that will determine whether or not this request is going to be fulfilled. To me, if you're not prepared to put Americans and your kids and grandkids in harm's way, then you have reached a conclusion that the President is wrong and we should not enter this type of a war. If, on the other hand, I am thoroughly convinced that when the American people are persuaded that our great democracy is in danger, that we would not want just a select group of people to be pulled out to over and over and over again put themselves in harm's way.
And so I know the tragedies that have occurred when there's been so many exceptions to the drafts in the past. And for that reason it was not found to be favorable to the average citizen; that if you were in college, if you came from a background, you were excluded from the draft. Well, this is not involved in this in any way. The only exclusions would be those who have mental or physical handicaps or conscientious objectors. Of course, if you're not needed, since it would be an overwhelming number of troops that would be available, then you could in national service be able to provide something in line for the American security.
And so I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for allowing me to interrupt this very informative and educated discussion of the impact of moratoriums and to thank him again for the contribution you make not only to Congress but specifically the Ways and Means Committee.
I yield back any time that I may have.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Thank you to the gentleman from New York. I appreciate that very much.
Joining us today on this very important topic as we look at the devastating impact of this drilling moratorium on American jobs and energy workers is a Congressman from Humble, Texas, who has taken a lead on a number of key national security interests, especially the border, but lives in a community that's adversely affected.
I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe).
Mr. POE of Texas. I thank the gentleman for yielding. We all represent an area of the State of Texas that is dramatically impacted by the oil and gas industry. And having a district on the Gulf Coast representing about 20 percent of the Nation's oil refineries, this is an especially serious incident that has occurred offshore, this BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. No question about it, this problem, this accident has to be solved. I understand within the last hour that the cap that has now been placed on the well by BP is apparently working. Hopefully, it will be working long enough for them to finish drilling the other two wells to solve this problem.
And we always must be mindful of the people that were killed in this tragedy, plus the tremendous damage it has done to certain parts of our environment. But we cannot allow this accident to be an overreaction. And I think the Federal Government has overreacted in this situation.
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The deep water in the Gulf of Mexico provides 17.3 percent of the Nation's domestic crude oil, and the Federal Government now has said, No more deepwater drilling until 6 months or when we get back with you. Now, no industry, whether it's a doughnut shop or the oil and gas industry or anybody else, can be shut down for 6 months by the Federal Government and expect to survive.
And these deepwater rigs are not cheap endeavors. They cost $500,000 a day to drill in the deep water. They're not going to wait 6 months for the Federal Government to make its decision whether they can continue to drill or not. That's why some of them have already left the deep water and gone to friendlier waters where those governments aren't quite as oppressive and prevent deepwater drilling.
Those people who work offshore in the deep water now are unemployed thanks to the Federal Government. It's an overreaction. Now, all of a sudden, 17.3 percent of the Nation's crude oil is gone out of the deep water. To make up for just what is now going to be eliminated in the deep water, it will take 300 tankers a year coming in from those countries in the Middle East to supply or resupply just the difference in the crude oil that we will not obtain from the deep water. And of course those tankers, some of them have had problems of containing that crude oil that is coming all the way from the Middle East. Once again, now we are paying and sending American money overseas, sending jobs somewhere off the coast of Brazil, Africa, and Egypt, and yet it is, in my opinion, an overreaction.
I will give you an example. In 2005, in Texas City, Texas, very near our districts, we had a BP explosion at a refinery. People were killed. In fact, more people were killed then and injured than in this explosion offshore, but we didn't close all of the refineries in the United States. We closed BP's refinery until we found out what the problem was and made sure that they were held accountable for what they did. But we didn't overreact.
I got a letter from a Cajun fellow, a real mad Cajun, from Houma, Louisiana. The Cajun community, as you know, Mr. Brady, they border our State. We have a lot of Cajuns in our southeast Texas. They come from Louisiana and ours go over there. Anyway, a lot of them work in the oil and gas industry. I want to read a portion of his letter. He wrote it to the President, but I got a copy of it as well. He runs an offshore drilling related business, and here's what he says.
``I am terribly troubled that after striving to find jobs for Americans, you make a hasty decision to stop drilling for 6 months. Did you stop coal mining after all the incidents they have been having? No. Did you stop the airlines after all the crashes and accidents they have been having? No. Did you shut down the mortgage companies, the banks, and the auto industry after they stole money from those same Americans that invested in them? No. You bailed them out. Now you want to shut down the oil industry for 6 months, which will hurt tens of thousands of workers! I only hope you understand the trickle-down effect this will have on many industries,'' such as for Timmy Bergeron.
I won't read the rest of the letter. It gets a little more colorful. But it's important that we understand these are real people that are losing their jobs because of this decision.
A Federal judge has said that the Federal Government's decision to stop or to issue a moratorium to stop deepwater drilling--and I quote the Federal judge in issuing an injunction, saying this injunction was wrong. The Federal judge said that the government's decision to stop deepwater drilling was ``arbitrary,'' it was ``capricious,'' it was
``unfounded,'' and it was ``punitive''--pretty strong words--because the government couldn't show evidence that stopping the deepwater drilling was necessary because of the accident with BP.
So the Federal Government is still suing the Americans, went and appealed this decision. A three-judge panel ruled that that decision would be upheld. The final decision will be in August. But the Federal Government has had its way because continuing to fight Americans in the courtrooms, prolonging the ultimate decision that will be made by the appellate courts on whether the injunction should be granted to stop the Federal Government's moratorium or not, is such a delay that more of those deepwater rigs will leave.
The people are still unemployed. They need jobs. They want to work offshore. And most of the people in this country, 73 percent of the Nation's population, think we should still continue to drill in the deep water, even in spite of this horrible accident, solve this problem, and allow Americans to continue to work.
With that, I yield back to my friend from Texas (Mr. Brady).
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, I appreciate the gentleman from Texas talking about that gentleman from Houma and about how frustrating it is to see the government ride to the rescue of so many industries and companies and unions and special interests, but when it comes to just an average U.S. energy worker, they go out of their way to actually kill that job or put that person's livelihood or that small business's livelihood at risk. People may think, Congressman, that this is just one or two States, it doesn't affect us in our community, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The International Association of Drilling Contractors, they surveyed a number of members all throughout the country. They surveyed just nine of their members, nine drilling contractors and one boat company just to ask them, Where are your workers at in America? And just nine companies found workers in almost 300 congressional districts throughout the United States of America. Just these nine companies and one boat company reached through almost 70 percent of U.S. congressional districts. It didn't include tens of thousands of other workers--oil service companies, large and small equipment manufacturers, mom-and-pop operations, oil companies. None of that's included. Just these nine drilling contractors and a boat company, almost 70 percent of the districts in America. You think, well, man, this can't be affecting our neighbors, but it is.
You've got a few examples just from these few companies. You've got wire rope from Missouri and Arkansas that is at risk; workers who build radiators in Minnesota; steel and pipe in Ohio; workers from fabrics and uniform makers in Illinois; those who create protective paints from Missouri; machinery for the offshore oil companies from Michigan; engines from Illinois; corrosion prevention materials from Illinois and Minnesota; Connecticut, workers who make electrical cables; drilling equipment from Illinois; pipe protective chemicals from Ohio; drilling equipment from Kansas; background checks and security services from Wisconsin; safety footwear from Oregon; on and on and on again. These are our neighbors whose jobs are at risk, not because BP didn't follow standard safety practices but because the White House decided these energy jobs weren't worth protecting. They'll bail out the auto unions, but they won't lift a finger to protect these jobs.
These are our people who are researchers and manufacturers. Some of them are roughnecks without a high school education who have the one job in America that allows them to actually raise their family, live the American Dream, and give their kids a college education. And those jobs are disappearing as we speak, and they're not going to come back any time soon. The companies are going. The rigs aren't coming back. The workers aren't coming back. The infrastructure isn't coming back. We become more dependent on foreign oil. Our energy prices for every American will go up. We'll buy more from companies that detest the United States of America.
That's why we have asked the President, Come to Texas. Come see these drilling workers, these energy workers face to face and tell them why their jobs aren't important, why their livelihoods don't matter, why their small business, family-owned business, it doesn't matter if they go away or not. And these people are from all across all walks of America.
I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson).
Mr. CULBERSON. Congressman Brady, I also want to say that we have extended an invitation to the President to come to Houston to meet the workers of the Johnson Space Center, where the President's administration has attempted to shut down America's manned space program, similar, as the administrator even admitted in my subcommittee, I asked him, Isn't what the administration is proposing on NASA like privatizing the Navy so that we would have to rent an aircraft carrier, we'd have to rent spacecraft?
It looks to me, Congressman Brady, that map you've got down there that you're showing us, I see a striking parallel there, Congressman Poe, that jobs affected by the President's attempt to shut down the manned space program--which, thankfully, Congress has rejected. And I want to thank the chairmen of the committees because we are going to get legislation to build a heavy-lift vehicle and manned capsule. Congress rejected the President's unwise strategy. We need to reject this unwise moratorium.
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But looks like the attempt to shut down the manned space program affected jobs in those same areas. To shut down the oil and gas industry affects jobs in those same areas. The attempt to cap and tax energy production in the United States devastating the American energy industry affects jobs in those same areas. I think all those areas are Republican. Aren't all those States in those areas pretty strongly Republicans? Certainly there's no correlation there, is there? Looks to me like there might be a pattern.
As Congressman Brady correctly points out, this administration's quick to bail out their buddies in the unions, but slow to protect American jobs that enhance this Nation's security, that enhance our prosperity. This moratorium is an outrage and we need to stop it. I thank you, Congressman Brady, for giving us this time on the floor to talk about it.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, thank you to the gentleman from Houston.
I'd like to turn to the gentleman from Humble. You're seeing this. You have communities that stretch from the suburbs of Houston over to southeast Texas, which has some of the highest unemployment rates in the State of Texas. These are the workers tied to these companies. You know them. You visited with them. You've had town hall meetings; they're neighbors.
Can you describe how disheartening this is for these workers who had nothing to do with the spill to have their jobs at risk and their livelihoods at risk?
Mr. POE of Texas. I thank the gentleman for yielding. As you know, Mr. Brady, Port Arthur, especially Port Arthur, Texas, is a refinery town; but it has high unemployment. The whole area has high unemployment for a lot of reasons. One reason, of course, is we've been hit by numerous hurricanes. Just since I've been in office, we've had Katrina, Rita, Hubert, Gustav and Ike all come through my congressional district and your congressional district. Because of that, it's affected the economy. And now these workers are trying to get back to work. Many of them work offshore, and then they work onshore in oil-
related industries.
But the effect of the shutdown in the deep water causes economic hardship, not just on the workers on those platforms, but for the people on shore that supply parts and maintenance and other industries, other commodities to those people who work offshore. And so we don't know yet how many thousands or hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost because of this.
But one thing that we also need to understand is the loss of energy, the lack of having crude oil that we were producing in the deep water; 17 percent of the Nation's domestic crude oil production comes from deep water. That is now going to be gone, and we'll have to make that up some other way. So we should expect gasoline prices to rise, probably in 2 years, maybe less because of that.
And I think it's imperative that we understand that the folks that are affected want to continue to work. They want to continue to work offshore. They want to continue to work safely. And they don't want the Federal Government putting them out of work. And that's exactly what happened. The Federal Government has shut them down, has sent their jobs overseas.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, if the gentleman would yield, can we talk a little more about how the loss of energy in America from this moratorium drives up fuel prices, makes us more dependent? Because I don't think most people realize, as you said, the Gulf of Mexico is a key generator of oil and natural gas for America. But it actually is very key to keeping OPEC from controlling energy prices throughout the world.
OPEC controls about 40 percent of the world's oil supply. And what happens is, when what we need as the world gets to about within 2 to 3 percent of everything that's produced, OPEC then has amazing leverage to drive those prices up for American families and workers. The Gulf of Mexico is our relief valve. That's where we produce energy and gas here in America. But because we have that producing, OPEC doesn't have the leverage that it historically has.
But with this moratorium, as you said, the energy supply isn't today. The shortage is in 2011 and 2012, which we know from the last time. When energy went to $4 a gallon, we saw the devastating impact on American energy, American prosperity, our economy and jobs. Man, the average families and small businesses just suffered. We're going to see more of that in the future.
Mr. POE of Texas. Will the gentleman yield?
That's exactly what will occur is not only energy costs, but we also must remember that this deepwater drilling and the crude oil that comes from the deep water produces millions of other products besides just fuel. All of the plastics, many of our technology comes from some base of crude oil. And all of that is affected, and the costs of all those items that are produced in our refineries and petrochemical plants will be affected because of this arbitrary, capricious, and punitive decision to just stop deepwater drilling.
I would hope the administration would re-evaluate their position, quit suing Americans, get out of the courtroom and get down on the Gulf of Mexico and fix this problem and let people go back to work.
I yield back.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. I appreciate the gentleman from Humble and his remarks that are right on target. I have some closing remarks, but I'd like the gentleman from Houston to conclude.
Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Brady, I just want to join you and Congressman Poe in inviting the President to come to Houston. Come meet, firsthand, these people, these fine men and women who are so committed to finding and producing American oil and gas cleanly and safely. These are our neighbors and friends, Congressman Brady and Congressman Poe, who we live with, alongside, have picnics with. These are good people. We all know how committed they are to this Nation and to finding American oil and gas cleanly and safely.
Come to Houston, President Obama. Meet them firsthand. See how much pride they take in their work, how much pride they take in their country, and how valuable and important their role is in this Nation's economy.
I yield back.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, thank you.
And in conclusion, let me just say, these are not Republican workers. These aren't Democrat workers, these aren't Libertarian workers, these aren't tea party workers. They're just American workers. These are their jobs. These are their hopes, their dreams, and they didn't do anything wrong. They've paid for the bailouts of other industries. They're not asking for that. They just want to go back to work on the rig that's been safe.
Historically, these energy workers, 50,000 wells in the gulf, this is the first accident. It wasn't their fault. You don't ground them all because of it.
Yet, their lives are at stake. And our energy prices, our energy independence, revenue to our State and Federal Government, small businesses who will never survive this moratorium ever if it goes the full 6 months, did nothing wrong, whose reach is all throughout the United States of America.
We have a lot at stake here. We are asking Republicans and Democrats in Congress to join us in asking the President to end this moratorium. Accept, adopt the safe practices, the newest, the safest practices proposed by experts in the industry. Allow this safe drilling to go forward. Stop sending our rigs overseas. Stop sending our jobs overseas. Stop sending our service companies overseas, our capital, our best and brightest minds, and ultimately our headquarters.
Keep America going on the path of energy independence. But don't hurt these 2 million workers who are tied to this important industry.
With that, I appreciate Congressman Culberson, Congressman Poe, being here tonight, as well as Congressman Scalise.
These are jobs. Put our American energy workers back to work.
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