DEEP OCEAN ENERGY RESOURCES ACT OF 2006
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to this bill.
House Republicans have called this week their so-called ``energy week,'' but the best they can do is offer up the same tired old refrain of drill, drill, drill. Unfortunately for them and for the American people, simply allowing more drilling is going to do virtually nothing for gasoline or natural gas prices and nothing to move us towards a sustainable energy future.
Now, proponents of this misguided legislation will accuse those of us fighting the bill of only saying ``no'' and not having any solution of our own, but that is a false choice. They are saying that we are either for drilling or we are for absolutely nothing.
The truth is that many of my colleagues and I have repeatedly offered solutions to our energy problems, only to have them rebuffed and not brought to the floor for a vote. Many of these solutions would not be germane to today's bill but are critical to solving our energy problems. I am talking about increasing fuel economy standards for our cars, introducing renewable portfolio standards, and strengthening energy efficiency standards for buildings and appliances.
I want to say, Mr. Chairman, I am in my district every week talking about energy efficiency, fuel economy. We just had a school opening, and we talked about how in Highland Park in my district we have a new school building that has geothermal fuels, that has new lighting that has solar power.
Just a week ago, I went to Middlesex County, one of my counties, at the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Station, and we just showcased new solar panels. We talked about all the things that can be done to create more energy efficiency in office buildings and residential buildings.
The State of New Jersey is providing grants that the Federal Government does not have for residential users to basically provide more energy efficiency.
So the fact of the matter is the Democrats and those who oppose this bill have been out there offering solutions. You just do not let us bring them up.
The choice that we are making today, whether or not to pass this bill, also comes with a serious price tag that we have already talked about. According to the Minerals Management Services' estimates, the revenue sharing in this bill, along with the giveaways to the oil and gas companies, would cost taxpayers $74 billion over 15 years, just increasing the debt. That is what the Republicans do. They increase the debt.
Now, what is worse is allowing drilling in sensitive offshore areas with endangered coastal economies in States like New Jersey.
Speakers on the other side have said that they are worried about jobs. Well, I am worried about jobs in my State. The beach season, the summer season has begun in my district. When we had problems in the late 1980s and our beaches were closed for other reasons, we had billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of jobs that were lost, and do not tell me that you are not going to have a spill. You say, oh, we are going to drill for natural gas and we are not going to hit oil. That is garbage. You have no way of knowing that.
You also make statements about how a State can opt-out. Well, my State is a small State. How do we opt-out when New York or Virginia have a spill and it comes to our shores? This is going to devastate our coastal environment.
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