Pallone Touts Nationwide Support of Offshore Drilling Ban
May 12, 2010
“I’m glad to see the Obama administration has backed off the plan to expand offshore drilling efforts along the East Coast and a growing coalition of governors oppose offshore drilling. I have been working long and hard with others to re-impose the moratorium on exploring or drilling in the area.
“The catastrophe in the Gulf created a public focus on the costly damage when things go wrong with oil drills in our ocean waters. This spill is literally spreading the harm to many states, to more beaches and to a larger coastline. The price tag for the clean-up and to the regional economy is also growing by the day. That is why we introduced separate legislation that increases economic liability for oil companies to $10 billion.
“The bottom line is that these spills happen all the time and opening up new drilling for fossil fuel development is unnecessary, poses a serious threat to our shores, and is the wrong approach. We must put a stop to any and all new offshore drilling in the United States.
“That is why I introduced legislation to ban any new exploration, development or production of oil, gas or any other mineral anywhere off America’s coasts. At the same time, we are holding oil companies accountable for putting profits over safety, by eliminating loopholes in safety measures, by making them pay for the full cost of cleanup, by requiring them to make up for economic losses and by banning all new offshore drilling sites off America’s coasts.
“We can not drill our way to energy independence and lower gas prices which is why America needs to move towards energy independence by harnessing renewable sources of energy such as wind, hydro, and solar power. We simply cannot allow a tragedy like this to occur again.”