Ortiz, Texas Delegation Press Interior Secretary on Oil Drilling Moratorium

Press Release

U.S. Representative Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) and other Texas lawmakers pushed U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today to reopen the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling as soon as possible.

"First and foremost, we are concerned with safety and health;" Ortiz told Secretary Salazar, whose Interior Department oversees oil exploration and development on public lands and in public waters. "We must continue to monitor and the safety and health of the people who work on and support the offshore rigs; the safety and health of all those who are working so hard to clean up the oil spill, and the safety and health of the Gulf of Mexico itself.

"I am also deeply concerned about hundreds of thousands of Texas jobs that depend on oil and gas production in the Gulf; those who work directly and indirectly in exploration and production and those who make their living in the refining and distribution sides of the industry."

Ortiz and seven other Members of the Texas Congressional Delegation were briefed by Salazar and Interior Department officials on the status of the investigation into the BP Oil Spill. The South Texas Congressman wanted to know if Gulf drilling could resume before the 6-month government investigation was complete.

"We're not waiting for six months to make necessary changes in the whole system," said Salazar. "We need to learn as we go and make modifications as we go."

Interior Department officials told the delegation, "And certainly, we know that safety considerations for shallow water exploration are very different from deep water concerns, and we have no intention of imposing a shallow water moratorium."

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