|
Atlantic City, N.J. --- With President Bush expected to sign a comprehensive energy bill into law this week, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, today assailed an oil and gas inventory provision in the bill that could lead to oil drilling off the Jersey shore.
The New Jersey congressman was joined at a news conference on the boardwalk in Atlantic City by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Deputy Commissioner Joanna Dunn Samson, officials from New Jersey environmental groups and Jeffrey Vasser, Executive Director of the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority.
Last week, Congress approved a final energy bill that contains a provision permitting an unnecessary inventory of oil and gas resources in the outer continental shelf, including along the New Jersey coastline. The bill allows seismic testing and other environmentally damaging testing activities that open the door for drilling and could potentially harm our marine and coastal environments.
"There is no major prize of oil and gas under the OCS off New Jersey, and trying to get at the little there is, simply is not worth the cost," Pallone said. "The impact to coastal and marine environments -- and thus to our tourism economy -- could be devastating. A single drilling accident could devastate our coastal towns and our economy."
Pallone noted that coastal tourism, the second largest industry in the state, supports more than 836,000 jobs, generates more than $31 billion in spending, and brings in more than $5.5 billion in tax revenues.
"Those who wrote the energy bill are eager to try to get every little drop of oil they can, but the truth is that we will never be able to drill our way to energy independence," Pallone said. "Sadly, rather than taking an opportunity to move towards a sustainable energy future, Congressional Republicans want to do little more than give massive tax breaks to corporate polluters and encourage more environmentally damaging oil and gas drilling."
Pallone expressed concern that the OCS inventory is the first step in undoing the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling that has been in effect since 1982 and continues through 2012.
"The federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling has protected the New Jersey shoreline for more than two decades," Pallone said. "The unnecessary inventory included in the Republican energy bill is not about 'seeing what is out there,' but about pushing for oil and gas drilling in areas currently protected by the law."
The New Jersey congressman cited evidence that there are only an estimated 2.31 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil under the entire Atlantic OCS area, enough to sustain the nation's energy needs for only two years. Moreover, 81 percent of the nation's undiscovered, economically recoverable natural gas on the OCS is located in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico, where drilling is currently allowed and underway.
Earlier this year, Pallone introduced the COAST Anti-Drilling Act, legislation that would permanently extend the moratorium along the entire mid-Atlantic coast. The bill also would prohibit the Department of Interior from issuing leases for exploration, development or production of oil, natural gas or any other mineral in the Mid and North Atlantic. |
