Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I rise today to join with my colleagues Senator Mark Udall and Chairman Jeff Bingaman of the Senate Energy Committee to introduce the Department of the Interior Research and Technologies for Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act of 2010. Legislation intended to make sure we have the proper resources available to respond to future oil spills.

While we are still getting to the bottom of what caused the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf, one thing is absolutely clear: BP was totally unprepared to respond, contain and clean-up this kind of spill.

From ``junk shots'' to containment domes that failed to work at depth, BP was caught totally flat footed by this spill. Even BP's CEO, Tony Hayward, admitted that BP didn't ``have the tools in the toolbox'' to respond to this spill.

The oil and gas industry has poured significant sums of money into developing technologies to find and produce oil and gas, but when I asked oil executives at a recent Energy Committee hearing what they've done in the way of research and development to respond to and clean up oil spills the response I got was: little to nothing.

The technologies being used today in the Gulf are the same technologies we used twenty years ago to clean-up the Exxon Valdez spill. The oil and gas industry needs to do better. Since they won't do it themselves, they can pay the government to lead on research and development. We need to have updated, innovative, and effective technologies at the ready to clean up after any oil spill--large or small.

We have to make sure that--through proper research and development--we are prepared to prevent and respond to future oil spills. And that is what my legislation is intended to do.

The legislation I am introducing today with Senators Udall and Bingaman does the following:

It creates a new Oil Spill research and development program within the Interior Department to focus on research and development technologies to respond to, contain and clean up oil spills and ensure we're prepared to respond to future spills.

It establishes an independent Scientific Advisory Board to identify gaps and focus the research and development program on priority areas. We know the concerns of the scientists were ignored leading up to the Deepwater Horizon explosion. This provision will make sure their important voices are heard.

It makes the oil and gas industry pay for this critical research and development. In order to make sure this import effort has the resources it need to be successful, my legislation creates a dedicated funding source to pay for this research and development, and this funding will come entirely from royalties, rent, and bonuses from domestic oil and gas producers.

This legislation is one part of a broader effort to ensure that we are prepared for future oil spills and that the catastrophe in the Gulf never happens again.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to incorporate this legislation into comprehensive legislation the Senate is crafting to respond to the Deepwater Horizon spill and reform the federal agency responsible for oil and gas development in the outer continental shelf. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation so that we can ensure we are prepared to handle future oil spills.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record,

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source