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House Approves Offshore Drilling Reform Bill |
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Washington, D.C. – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr., (NJ-06) Friday lauded the passage of the CLEAR Act, legislation that will enact offshore drilling reforms and inject transparency and accountability into the offshore drilling process. The CLEAR Act directly responds to the Deepwater Horizon disaster while also looking forward and attempting to prevent the next catastrophe.
“These reforms are necessary in addressing the problems that caused the Gulf oil spill because you can’t be sure the oil companies are always going to do the right thing,” said Pallone. “The industry has to step up and accept the full weight of the responsibility for the damage they can cause to the environment. These reforms are crucial to ensuring the taxpayer does not pay for the oil industries mistakes and that our coastal environments are better protected.”
The key provision of the bill divides the beleaguered agency blamed for approving permits to BP and Transocean for the Deepwater Horizon rig into three different entities which separately manage offshore leasing and permitting, safety investigations and environmental enforcement and collection of all revenues from these leases.
The legislation was recently approved and voted out of the Natural Resources Committee without any weakening amendments. During the markup Pallone pushed for language to require greater environmental review in the leasing process and called for offshore drilling to be prohibited in the waters off of New Jersey.
In addition to disbanding and reforming the government agency responsible for reviewing offshore leases, the funding provided in the legislation will go toward establishing a Gulf of Mexico Restoration Program to coordinate efforts to clean up the Gulf. It also reinvests money obtained from the sale of public resources to projects that will protect and conserve our natural, historical and recreational resources.
“Aside from these important reforms, I believe now more than ever we need to invest in clean and renewable sources of energy that do not pose a risk to the environment,” said Pallone. |
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