The Consolidated Land Energy and Aquatic Resources Act (H.R. 3534)
July 14, 2010 Full Committee Markup
Reporting H.R. 3534 out of Committee (View Roll Call Vote)
Although promoted as a bill to establish new laws and regulations in response to the Deepwater Horizon spill, The CLEAR Act includes numerous provisions that are unrelated to the spill response or reforms to offshore drilling. Items such as onshore energy development, renewable energy production, aquaculture, wildlife sustainability, uranium leasing and over a $1 billion a year in unrelated spending have no place in a bill that is supposed to respond to the oil spill. Reforms are clearly needed to make American offshore drilling the safest in the world, but Congress should not get ahead of the facts in a rush to write new laws. To ensure it makes the right reforms, Congress must first know exactly what caused and contributed to this disaster.
Hastings Amendment # 110 - Strike All Sections Except Title I and Title VIII (View Roll Call Vote)
This amendment would strike all parts of the bill except Title I, creating new Department of Interior agencies to replace the Minerals Manage Service, and Title VIII, creating a long-term Gulf of Mexico restoration program. All other sections of the bill are either unrelated to offshore drilling and the Gulf oil spill response or require additional information and facts from multiple ongoing investigations.
Flake Amendment #241 - Delete Uranium Leasing Provisions (View Roll Call Vote)
This amendment would strike the section in the bill that 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 produce.
Markey Amendment #091 – Pilot Program for Wind and Solar Leasing (View Roll Call Vote)
This amendment would select four sites in total to establish a pilot land leasing program within the Department of Interior for wind and solar development. A pilot program would complicate leasing for wind and solar by adding a duplicative process that could ultimately hinder solar and wind development.
Chaffetz Amendment #121 - Strike the $40 Billion in New, Mandatory Spending (View Roll Call Vote)
This Amendment would strike the over $40 billion in new mandatory spending over 30 years. The spending is completely unrelated to the oil spill and includes $900 million a year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, $150 million for the Historic Preservation Fund and 10% of OCS Revenues for New Ocean Resources Conservation and Assistance Fund.
Fleming Amendment #108 - Strike Hydraulic Fracturing Provisions (View Roll Call Vote)
This amendment would strike a provision that requires the disclosure of hydraulic fracturing liquids to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. This requirement would make retrieving valuable shale oil and gas extremely difficult by essentially blocking producers’ ability to use a time tested process known as hydraulic fracturing. In addition, this would likely add to the flight of capital away from western states as companies move to other regions of the United States for production.
Chaffetz Amendment #004 - Ban earmarking of LWCF, Historic Preservation and ORCA Fund (View Roll Call Vote)
This amendment would put into law a ban on earmarking of the $40 billion in new funds included in this bill. By voting against this amendment, Democrats are supporting the creation of a nearly $1.5 billion per year earmark slush fund that’s unrelated to the oil spill.
Gohmert Amendment #013 – Prohibit Offshore Rig Inspectors from Striking (View Roll Call Vote)
The only unionized branch of the former Minerals Management Service (MMS) is the offshore drilling inspectors. This amendment recognized the importance of always having inspectors on the job to ensure safety by prohibiting government offshore rig inspectors from striking and walking off the job.
Inslee Amendment #142 –Non-competitive Leasing for Geothermal (View Roll Call Vote)
This amendment would establish a non-competitive leasing program for geothermal energy production on public lands. It allows BLM bureaucrats working with industry representatives to give away on a non-competitive basis, known valuable geothermal resources.
McClintock Amendment #105 - Strike “wildlife sustainability” (View Roll Call Vote)
This amendment would strike a provision that calls for the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to help maintain sustainable populations of non-native species on forest and BLM land – not oceans.
Wittman Amendment #106 - Strike Aquaculture Section (View Roll Call Vote)
This amendment would strike the aquaculture section of the bill that bans fish farm operations. 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.
Lummis Amendment #111 - Strike Onshore Energy Provisions (View Roll Call Vote)
This amendment strikes all onshore energy provisions, which are completely unrelated to the disaster in the Gulf and will harm American energy production. The Western Energy Alliance, a coalition of onshore oil and gas producers said the onshore provisions in H.R. 3534 will “make leasing more expensive, increase uncertainty, increase centralized Government control over market mechanisms, and create a new, redundant layer of bureaucracy.”
Cassidy Amendment #006 - Revenue Share the “Conservation fee” (View Roll Call Vote)
The bill implements a new $2 per barrel of oil and 20 cents per million Btu of natural gas “conservation fee.” This amendment would revenue share $1 of this fee to oil and gas producing states and coastal states with production off their coasts. This amendment continues our tradition of revenue sharing of rents, royalties, fees and bonus bids with states that has been a historical part of our oil and gas program.
Cassidy Amendment #032 - Repeal and Prohibit Administration’s Deepwater Moratorium (View Roll Call Vote)
This amendment would repeal and prohibit the Obama Administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf to protect tens of thousands of jobs in the Gulf.
Cassidy Amendment #115 - Require Job Impact Analysis (View Roll Call Vote)
This amendment ensures that nothing in H.R. 3534 could result in “a net increase in unemployment; increased imports of oil and gas to the United States; and higher energy costs to American consumers.”
* For complete legislative action for the July 14, 2010 Full Committee Markup, click here.
