No Ban Exists on Offshore Oil Drilling

NO BAN EXISTS ON OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING -- (House of Representatives - June 18, 2008)

(Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, there is no ban on offshore oil drilling. In fact, there are 33.5 million acres offshore leased to the oil industry from which they are extracting nothing and they are not developing. They say, well, they don't have the drill bits or they don't have the time or whatever. The Republicans say they need more leases.

They don't need more leases. They need to develop what is out there, plain and simple. Think of the former Naval Petroleum Reserve. It is right up there in Alaska next to ANWR, 13.4 billion barrels of known reserves, drilled and capped by the oil industry, leased by Bill Clinton, not producing a single drop.

But, oh, let's go to ANWR. There might be some there.

Come on, guys. They are not developing what they have now. There is a 20-year supply out there underneath their idle leases that could double our domestic production, and, plain and simple, they haven't developed it. Then when they are done with that, then we can have a debate about more leasing in other places.

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