Offshore Drilling
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, today the Senate is going to consider a bill to increase offshore drilling. This is the Republican response to the Nation's need for a national energy policy and to rising gasoline prices. I believe the Republican approach to this will be unsuccessful. I believe it overlooks some very fundamental and basic facts, and the facts are these: We cannot drill our way out of our problem. If we take a look at all the known oil reserves in the United States offshore and onshore--all of them--they comprise 2 percent of the known oil reserves in the world--2 percent. Now take a look at how much oil the United States consumes each year: 25 percent of the world oil production.
The Republican answer is drill, baby, drill. Honestly, that is not going to solve the problem, and it is going to invite some dangerous activities that we should know better than to engage in. It has not been that long ago that 170 million gallons of oil poured out of a well that was improperly drilled by BP in the Gulf of Mexico. The devastation that followed to the local economy and to the environment is virtually incalculable. Have we learned a lesson--a lesson that safety should be the hallmark when it comes to drilling; that we ought to make certain that before we go into an environment which is precious, where an accident could create some unknown hazard or danger, that we thoroughly investigate that in advance. That is not too much to ask. We know what is going on in the Gulf of Mexico today as the economy is still trying to recover.
My colleagues on the other side of the aisle who produced the McConnell approach--the drill, baby, drill approach--want to just forget the spill. They want us to rush into drilling with the same reckless practices that led to the spill in the first place. This is not going to solve the problem. In fact, it may create more problems.
If passed, the Republican bill would require the Secretary of the Interior to evaluate a permit application in 60 days regardless of its complexity--60 days. If the Secretary cannot make a decision within 60 days, the permit is automatically approved even if it contains potential environmental and safety risks. This arbitrary deadline makes it impossible for regulators to do the in-depth scientific analysis needed to accurately evaluate the risks and safety requirements for every application.
The bill also mandates the sale of offshore oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Virginia, and the Arctic Ocean--sales that were postponed in order to investigate the potential environmental impact.
Not only does the Republican bill not add any new protocols to ensure that increased drilling will be safe, it revokes some of the additional requirements that were instituted following the BP spill. They have not learned any lesson from what happened in the Gulf of Mexico. Essentially, this bill would lead to more offshore drilling, with less safety and regulation of the industry. One would think that the BP oilspill never happened, if we consider this bill, which will be on the floor later today.
There is really no reason to rush to begin new drilling projects in such an irresponsible manner because under President Obama, domestic oil production has grown to its highest level in the last 7 years. That is right, it has grown to its highest level in the last 7 years. If one listened to the other side, one would think the opposite was true--that we cut back or stopped drilling. Since February, 34 permits for 14 unique deepwater wells have been issued under the new safety requirements since the BP spill. Oil production in Federal waters has increased in both of the last 2 years.
Last weekend, the President announced several steps the administration would take to expand further responsible development of domestic energy resources. The Department of the Interior will hold lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska by mid-2012, once additional analyses have been completed. Extensions will be granted to all leases offered by the deepwater suspension, as well as delayed leases in Alaska. Annual oil and gas lease sales will be held in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve. And the mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic coast will undergo an expedited review for fuel resources. The President's actions show we are continuing to expand our domestic resources responsibly.
This careless Republican bill is unnecessary. It is bad policy. The bill proposed by Senator McConnell would force us to disregard all the lessons we learned from the tragic oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico a year ago.
It has been many years back when I was up in Alaska when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in the Prince William Sound and dumped tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil into this beautiful place in our world. I was up there, and we had workers out. They were literally swabbing up the oil off the rocks as it washed up on the shore. They wore these yellow slickers, which in no time at all were covered with this black crude oil. People with cameras were running around taking photos of the workers.
I went over to an old fellow in one of those yellow slickers who had these big swaddling cloths, mopping up the crude oil that had been dumped into this beautiful place of Prince William Sound. I said to him after the cameras left: Do you think this is helping? He said: Well, I think if we didn't do anything, God would take care of this in about 10 years. By taking extra effort, maybe it will be 9 years and 6 months.
The point I am making is this: Once the spill has taken place, it takes time for nature to restore itself, if it can. In Prince William Sound, some species of fish never returned. I do not know what will happen in the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps over time nature will heal this wound. I hope it does.
Do we not have a special responsibility as stewards of this planet Earth and of this Nation to be careful? Is it too much to ask that we engage in fuel efficiency and thoughtful energy policy rather than recklessly drill in every direction without asking the hard questions, without taking the time for an honest analysis? Not only did the BP oilspill despoil that area, it claimed human lives. When it comes to safety and environmental responsibility, we should not be cutting corners such as the Republican bill would do.
At the end of the day, even if they could drill every place they wanted to drill with no questions asked, it would have virtually no impact on gasoline prices. Oil prices are set in the global market, and we cannot change them simply by attempting to increase oil production when it comes to only 2 percent of the known oil reserves.
Given the President's recent action and steady increase of production, this bill is pointless and dangerous. For this reason, I urge my colleagues not to support it and to vote against this measure that will be offered later today.
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