Rep. Mike Levin Renews Call for End to California Offshore Drilling During House Natural Resources Committee Meetings
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Mike Levin (D-CA) renewed his call to end offshore drilling off the coast of California during a House Natural Resources Committee markup yesterday and an Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee hearing today.
Yesterday, Rep. Levin helped pass two bills out of the Natural Resources Committee to strengthen pipeline safety and oversight. The Offshore Pipeline Safety Act introduced by Rep. Julia Brownley (D-CA) requires the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) to update regulations for offshore oil and gas pipelines to better ensure active pipeline integrity and address safety and environmental risks associated with decommissioning. The Offshore Accountability Act introduced by Rep. Don McEachin (D-VA) requires operators of offshore oil and gas facilities to report failures of critical systems to the Secretary of the Interior.
Today, Rep. Levin participated in an Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee hearing where he questioned several expert witnesses about the importance of strengthening financial assurance and bonding requirements for offshore oil and gas operators in order to cover the costs of responsibly decommissioning drilling infrastructure. “I recognize that dealing with this problem will not be easy. Decommissioning is expensive, and it will certainly face opposition from the fossil fuel companies that profit from drilling activity and their allies who benefit from continued extraction. They’ll take great pains to distort the facts and mislead the public about the respective risks and benefits. And sadly, we’ve seen this deception before. But make no mistake: this endeavor is absolutely necessary for the wellbeing of our economy and environment here in coastal California, and it is broadly supported by our coastal constituents – Republicans, Democrats, Independents. This is not partisan here in our coastal communities,” Rep. Levin said. Click here for video of Rep. Levin’s full remarks for the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee hearing
See below for a transcript of Rep. Levin’s full remarks from Wednesday’s Natural Resources markup:
Thank you, Chair Grijalva. I appreciate that we've included Representative Brownley's Offshore Pipeline Safety Act on today's markup agenda.
It is incredibly timely. As I'm sure we’re all aware, there’s currently an oil spill off the coast of Southern California.
The spill likely began two Fridays ago offshore from Huntington Beach in Orange County, although it was not reported by the responsible oil company until the next day.
The spill spread rapidly, including further south in Orange County, off the coast of Dana Point and San Clemente in my district.
Tarballs that are likely caused by the spill have also been found in my district in North County San Diego, in cities including Oceanside, Carlsbad, and Del Mar.
I've had the privilege of spending a significant amount of time with our leaders who are operating the Unified Command that is responding to this disaster.
Led by the Coast Guard, and inclusive of relevant state and local authorities, the Unified Command has been aggressive and communicative in its response.
They've done a good job of organizing clean up teams and protecting environmentally sensitive areas, such as a number of lagoons in my district, as well as critical infrastructure, including the Carlsbad Desalination Plant.
But make no mistake, this oil spill is a disaster for our environment and our economy.
Beaches throughout the county were closed last week, which has a significant impact on businesses and the way of life in our communities.
And fisheries throughout the spill area remain closed.
We heard directly from small business owners in Dana Point Harbor, in my district, who suffered economically as the harbor was closed and business came to a standstill.
More than $2 billion in wages and $4 billion in gross domestic product are generated by the marine economy, including coastal tourism, in Orange County, so we have a lot to lose.
This spill must not just be one more event in the litany of environmental disasters that our country has faced as a result of our addiction to oil.
Instead, it's my great hope this drives us to change the policies that allow this sort of thing to happen so regularly.
I'm pleased to support the Offshore Pipeline Safety Act, which moves us in the right direction, without a doubt.
But if you closely read the GAO report that the legislation is based on, you'll see that BSEE already requires subsea inspections and leak detection technology for offshore drilling infrastructure in the Pacific.
So, the message is clear: even with the more stringent procedures we envision, we can still face economic and environmental disaster, which leads to the following conclusion. The only foolproof way to protect our coasts, oceans, and the marine economy in California that relies on them is to end drilling off our Southern California coast once and for all.
The first step to doing so is making the offshore drilling provisions of the Build Back Better Act that we passed out of this committee the law of the land.
I'm proud that our bill invests in the long-term protection of coastal communities by ending new federal oil and gas leasing in the Pacific and beyond.
This policy goes hand in hand with the other provisions in the bill that accelerate our transition away from the fossil fuels that drive more intense hurricanes, longer wildfire seasons, and deeper droughts.
And it's also important to note that oil production offshore of California is a drop in the bucket when compared to production nationwide.
In fact, the annual – the annual - oil production offshore of California is just one-third of what our nation produces in a single day.
So it's easy to see the importance of the commonsense policy in the Build Back Better Act. The economic risk posed by drilling and disaster in our region, it is overwhelming, and when you compare it to the benefits, even more so.
I'm not alone in this analysis. I was joined by nearly 80 of our colleagues last week in supporting the offshore drilling ban in the Build Back Better Act.
So, as communities in my district continue to recover from the economic consequences of the oil spill, I urge my colleagues to support the Offshore Pipeline Safety Act and the offshore provisions in the Build Back Better Act.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
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