House Republicans Pass Phantom Drilling Revenue Bill for Sham of Transportation Legislation

WASHINGTON (February 16, 2012) - With their transportation bill floundering, House Republicans went to the standard playbook and voted to open up more areas to drilling to appease Big Oil. The much-touted "revenue portion" of the House Republican transportation bill passed today, even though it would provide about 1 percent of the total funding for the bill. One of the bills promoting failed oil shale technology wouldn't even produce any revenue at all.

In exchange for this paltry contribution to the transportation bill that looks ever likelier to crash and burn, Americans are being told to open up the beaches off the East and West Coasts, Florida, and the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Meanwhile, House Republicans rejected efforts by Democrats to keep natural gas and oil that might be produced by drilling or transported in the Keystone pipeline here in America. Republicans are supporting increased exports of domestic natural gas, which would expose American consumers and businesses to the higher prices of the international gas market.

"The House Republican transportation bill may be on the skids, but today's vote makes it clear that nothing can stop the Republican oil company gravy train from chugging along," said Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass), the Ranking Member of the Natural Resources Committee. "These bills provide phantom revenue from phantom drilling that will never occur, all to fund a sham of a transportation bill."

The three Republican bills passed would:

Open up the East and West Coasts to drilling.
Open up off of Florida's beaches to drilling.
Open up the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
Ask Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to be guinea pigs for experimental oil shale activities.
Raise $4.28 billion, most of which would not even be available to plug the shortfall in transportation funding needed in the next six years.

During the debate, Republicans rejected several amendments offered by House Democrats, including amendments that would:

If subjected to approving the Keystone XL pipeline, keep the oil transported through the proposed pipeline in America, not re-exported to China and other markets as is currently planned (offered by Rep. Markey); and if it is built, that it is done so with United States steel (Rep. Mike Doyle, Pa.).
Ensure that natural gas extracted from the opened areas offshore and in the Arctic Refuge, should they ever actually be opened up to drilling, stays in America (offered by Rep. Markey).
Protect from offshore drilling the Northern California coast (Rep. Mike Thompson, Calif.), the Southern California coast (Rep. Lois Capps, Calif.), and the Northeast U.S. coast (Rep. Tim Bishop, N.Y.).
Permanently protect all of the Great Lakes and the Florida Everglades from oil and natural gas drilling (Rep. Castor)
Recover up to $53 billion in lost taxpayer money from free drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (Rep. Markey).
Stop the proposed experimental oil shale drilling in Western states (Rep. Jared Polis, Colo.).

"House Republicans used to say ‘Drill here, drill now, pay less', but the GOP's new mantra is ‘drill here, sell there, pay more'," said Rep. Markey. "Republicans and the oil companies want to increase offshore drilling, then offshore the jobs we could create from lower natural gas prices by exposing our economy to an expensive international natural gas market. We should be creating American energy that powers American jobs."