Barbara Lee Slams Attempt to Lift Coastal Drilling Ban
(Washington, DC) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) released the following statement in response to Republican efforts to lift a Congressional ban on Coastal drilling during debate on the Interior Appropriations bill today:
“For twenty five years we have maintained a bipartisan agreement to ban any new drilling off our shores because we believed it was more important to safeguard the health and beauty of our coastal environment for future generations to enjoy.
“But now the interior appropriations bill threatens to upset this agreement and open our coastal areas to drilling despite overwhelming opposition from the American people.
“We should not be trading away our pristine coastal habitats to fatten the coffers of the administration’s cronies in the oil and gas industry.
“The fact of the matter is that new offshore drilling will do nothing in the short term to reduce the high gas prices that consumers are facing at the pump, and will do nothing in the long term to wean us away from our addiction to oil.
“The best way to fight high gas prices now is to hold oil companies accountable for gouging consumers by instituting a windfall profits tax.
“At the same time, we need to make immediate investments to expand energy efficiency by raising vehicle fuel economy standards, increasing the use of renewable fuels, and by adopting a foreign policy that does not hold our constituents hostage to the latest political crisis in the Middle East.
“Today our constituents are paying the price for this administration’s deliberate decision to prioritize the profit margins of the oil and gas industry over a comprehensive and sustainable long term energy policy.
“I encourage my colleagues to vote against another giveaway to the energy industry and to support the Putnam/Capps amendment and save our coastal environments.”
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