Rejects Attempt to Exploit Spill for Political Agenda

Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05) today voted against the CLEAR Act, H.R. 3534, in the House Natural Resources Committee. Instead of focusing on solving the immediate problem of the Deepwater Horizon Spill, the subject of many recent hearings, Democrats admitted to exploiting the bill to further their own political agenda.

When asked at the committee hearing why he was introducing an amendment to attach his Geothermal Production Expansion Act, H.R. 3709, to this bill, Rep. Jay Inslee (WA-01) gave the surprisingly candid answer: “This is a really nice train leaving the station and probably the only one this Congress.”

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“Congress needs to get serious about the Gulf oil spill. I reject attempts by House Democrats to use the spill as an excuse to load up this bill with needless or even harmful regulation of America’s energy production. 

“Right now Congress should be focused on efforts to stop the leak, clean up the oil, and provide relief to affected Gulf residents and businesses.  After that, Congress must get to the bottom of what happened so we can make the informed and complete reforms needed to ensure that this never happens again.

“Unfortunately, this bill does not directly address any of those priorities. The Democrats have allowed environmentalists to hijack what one representative called “a really nice train leaving the station” by adding a wish list of unrelated items. This is yet another example of how out of touch Democrats are with what is really going on in the country. Instead of solving the immediate crisis in the Gulf, they are more interested in pursuing an agenda that restricts American energy production.”– Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05)

Some of the unrelated items in the CLEAR Act include:

• Renewable Energy.  An entire section of this bill is exclusively dedicated to onshore renewable energy.  Wind turbines and solar panels hundreds of miles away from the Gulf have absolutely nothing to do with a leaking deepwater oil well that is 5,000 feet under the ocean floor.  
• Onshore Energy Development.Rather than just focusing on offshore drilling, the bill makes numerous changes to onshore energy development.  These policies will do nothing to help clean up the Gulf, but will seriously impact onshore American energy production leading to higher energy prices and lost jobs. 
• Aquaculture.  The billrestricts the ability of the Secretary of Commerce and Regional Fishery Management Councils from developing or approving any fishery management plan that permits or regulates offshore aquaculture.  In addition, it would nullify any permit for offshore aquaculture already granted by the Secretary. Not only is this unrelated to the oil spill, but could lead to further job loss in the Gulf and potentially hinder fishery restoration activities. 
• Uranium Leasing.The bill amends the Mineral Leasing Act to make uranium a leasable mineral, subject to rental and royalty rates.  Creating a new uranium leasing program will not help respond to the crisis in the Gulf, but will make uranium, which is used to produce carbon-free nuclear energy, more expensive and difficult to mine.
• Wildlife Sustainability.  A provision in this bill calls for the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to help maintain sustainable populations of native and desire non-native plants and animals on lands under their jurisdiction.  Managing onshore federal lands for wildlife has nothing to do with offshore drilling or Gulf Coast restoration.

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