Pete Domenici: “A lot has been said about this. A lot is not true. In a very few minutes, I will go through exactly what is true by…”

“A lot has been said about this. A lot is not true. In a very few minutes, I will go through exactly what is true by reading specifically what the bill says and the interpretations that we have. I do not believe there is any right-thinking American, knowing the dangerous nature of our reliance upon both oil and natural gas, who would not want to know tomorrow morning, if they could, how much in resources we have if we ever needed them. We only want to know about certain ones. We do not want to know about those who might want to drill out in the ocean. We just want to know about some of them. I think every American would say: Tell us how much we own, and then later on we will discuss whether it is worthwhile trying to use them. The provisions in this bill do not lift the moratorium. It simply authorizes the Secretary to conduct a study. This language prohibits the use of drilling to obtain data, and it also directs the Secretary to use existing data. It is a prudent move to take an inventory of our domestic resources and where they are located. Technology has changed significantly over the years, and resource data that were developed in the 1970s are totally outdated. We did not have the advantage of 3-D seismic analysis, and MMS has never included 3-D data in its assessment of the Atlantic OCS resources. Nearly 60 percent of our oil is imported today. Supply disruptions left the world oil markets in short supply.”