The Democrat majority on the House Natural Resources Committee today voted (22 to 26) against an amendment offered by Rep. Bill Cassidy (LA-06) to prohibit the Obama Administration from implementing a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf. Click here to view the roll call.

“To support this moratorium you have to ignore the evidence, the testimony of experts, and the ruinous consequences this irrational political decision will have on tens of thousands of Louisiana families,” said Rep. Cassidy.

Background

In issuing the Interior Department’s 30-Day Safety Report, which recommended a six-month deepwater drilling moratorium, Secretary Salazar ignored and misrepresented the views of eight drilling experts from the National Academy of Engineering who peer reviewed the report. The engineers rejected the need for a blanket moratorium, writing that “it will not measurably reduce risk further and it will have a lasting impact on the nation’s economy, which may be greater than that of the oil spill.”

The Obama Administration’s moratorium is causing a second economic crisis in the Gulf. Thousands of jobs have already been lost and thousands of additional jobs are at risk of being sent overseas. Just this week, Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. announced that they would move a second drilling rig from the Gulf of Mexico to Congo, following an earlier announcement that a Diamond rig would be moved to Egypt. The President of Diamond Offshore noted, “As the uncertainty about continued deepwater drilling in the [gulf] persists, we must consider alternatives that allow our deepwater assets to remain employed.” (Oil & Gas Journal 7/13/10)

After twice being rebuked by federal courts, Secretary Salazar is insisting on manipulating the law to ram through another economically devastating moratorium that will continue to cost jobs, hurt the economy and increase our dependence on foreign oil.

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