The BP oil spill in the Gulf was tragic, but should Congress use it to stop oil drilling in the United States?
Some in Congress are attempting to do just that.
H.R. 5626, Blowout Prevention Act of 2010, would stop virtually all drilling in the United States – both onshore and offshore.
The bill was introduced by Congressmen, Waxman, Markey and Stupak.
H.R.5626 establishes conditions that are impossible to meet and, by so doing, will stop all drilling in the United States.
Under Section 2(a)(2) of the bill, no oil company may obtain a permit to drill for a high-risk well unless it demonstrates the ”capacity to promptly stop a blowout in the event the blowout preventer and other well control measures fail.”
This condition is impossible to meet. No corporation will be able to certify “it can promptly stop a blowout” and subject itself, and its officers, to fines of $10,000,000 and imprisonment in jail. The operator of the well must attest to meeting this and the other provisions of the act.
Every well is a “High Risk” well.
H.R. 5626 defines “High Risk” wells as any well within 200 miles of the shoreline and any on-shore well that, if a spill occurred, would cause substantial harm to the environment.
All shallow water and deep water wells are within 200 miles of our shoreline.
For environmentalists every spill causes “substantial harm to the environment” and they will sue no matter how small the spill.
Onshore drilling would be stopped out of fear of a spill, no matter how small.
H.R. 5626 also establishes new bureaucracies that would make drilling in the United States untenable and subject to bureaucratic control.
In addition the act empowers “citizens” to enforce the Act and its associated regulations via litigation. Every environmental group or citizen extremist will be able to sue anyone and everyone in the government and in any oil company.
It’s clear this act is designed to stop all drilling in the United States, but doesn’t pay attention to the Chinese who will be drilling 90 miles off the Florida coast in Cuban waters.
One must wonder about the motivation of the people who support H.R. 5626 –Do they just hate the oil companies or do they hate America?
From where do they expect the United States to get the 20 million barrels of oil it needs every day? Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Russia?
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