House Opens All Coasts to Destructive Drilling

Environment Texas

AUSTIN— Today the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1231, the Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act. This is the third piece of offshore drilling legislation that House Republican leadership passed as their response to rising gas prices.  But most oil industry experts and the federal Energy Information Agency say there is no connection between expanded offshore drilling and lowering prices. Environment Texas applauded Texas Congressmen Lloyd Doggett, Charlie Gonzalez and Ruben Hinojosa for voting against the bill (the sole Texans to do so).

Environment Texas Director Luke Metzger made the following statement:

“Starting last week and continuing this week, Big Oil and their allies in Congress have won a terrible trifecta, like winning horse racing’s Triple Crown, which will pave the way for risking America’s coasts with a massive expansion of offshore oil drilling.

“Only a little over a year after the BP oil spill, Big Oil and their allies in Congress want to rubberstamp permits, cut out environmental reviews, and close off the courts to legitimate complaints while opening our coasts to more destructive drilling. 

“Instead of giving the green light to this industry, Congress should permanently protect our sensitive coasts from the kinds of environmental and economic devastation the BP spill brought to the Gulf of Mexico.

“If Congress really wants to do something effective about the price of gas, they should support policies that help Americans transition off oil and move to renewable sources of energy. We need to increase gas mileage, improve building efficiency and expand public transit. These are the policies that will get us off oil and remove the stranglehold that oil companies have on our country. Passage of these three bills (H.R. 1229, 1230, and 1231) takes us backward, threatening our coasts and increasing our dependence on oil and gas.”