Environment America is the new home of U.S. PIRG’s environmental work.
Statement of U.S. PIRG Oceans Advocate Mike Gravitz
The
Senate voted 71 to 25 today to pass S. 3711, the Gulf of Mexico Energy
Security Act. This bill will bring the 25 year old bipartisan
moratorium that has prevented expansion of drilling off America’s
coasts one step closer to an end.
This bill achieves a real trifecta, a Triple Crown of bad energy
policy, bad fiscal policy and bad environmental policy. It will do
nothing to solve high gasoline or natural gas prices now or even in the
long term. It provides too little oil and gas to do that. It will only
lull the Senate and Americans into thinking they’ve solved a problem
instead of tackling the real solutions: energy conservation, fuel
economy and renewable energy sources.
This offshore drilling bill would open over 8 million acres in the
central Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling. Of this total, over 2
million acres in lease sale area 181 would be open for drilling in 2007
without passage of the bill. The new area, loosely called 182, is in
very deep water and contains relatively small amounts of oil and
natural gas, about 525 million barrels of oil and 2.2 trillion cubic
feet of gas, according to the Minerals Management Service (MMS).
We estimate that this will provide only an estimated 25 days of oil and
35 days worth of natural gas over a period of 60 years at current
consumption rates, offering a miniscule contribution to the Nation’s
energy problems. According to MMS estimates, natural gas from the areas
wouldn’t flow until 2011-2013 at the earliest and oil won’t flow until
2015. This bill does nothing to address our current or future energy
needs.
Despite these realities, proponents of the bill pretend that it offers
a quick fix to our country’s energy problems. Americans want real
leadership on energy conservation, new technologies for clean,
renewable energy, and progress on stopping global warming. Instead this
bill gives them more drilling, little energy supply, and no
conservation.
This bill is bad and got no better on the floor of the Senate since
Senate leadership would not allow any amendments that save energy or
develop new, renewable energy resources. In fact, it could get even
worse if it is conferenced with the dangerous HR. 4761, the Deep Ocean
Energy Resources Act that passed the House in late June. Instead of
just opening 8 million acres off the west coast of Florida, HR.4761
could open the coastlines of another 16 states to drilling as close as
3 miles offshore.
To
be clear, US PIRG opposed S. 3711 in its current form; and should it
come back from a House conference unchanged, we would still oppose it.
Having said that, we are glad that several key Senators, among them
Senators Bill Nelson and Harry Reid are on record as clearly opposing
any version of S. 3711 that comes back with changes during a conference
with the House.
