Harley Rouda: “This amendment adds a provision to the bill that would require the Department of Commerce to complete an economic impact…”

“This amendment adds a provision to the bill that would require the Department of Commerce to complete an economic impact study of potential damage related to offshore drilling. This assessment would include tourism, commercial and recreational fishing, boating, transportation, and other waterfront and coastal-related businesses. The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, which was once the largest oil spill in United States waters and now ranks third after Deepwater Horizon and the 1989 Exxon Valdez spills, killed thousands of birds and marine animals. Commercial fishing was suspended, and tourism plunged. California's economic drivers are concentrated along California's coastline, and an oil spill from a Federal platform, pipeline, or barge transporting oil would have a catastrophic impact on California's and the Nation's economy and natural resources. In fact, 40 percent of all goods shipped into the United States come through the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports of entry, and these goods go to all 435 districts across the United States. Every community would be impacted. Offshore drilling for oil and gas threatens key economic drivers in coastal districts and States. Disasters on the scale of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the largest environmental disasters in American history, cost our country more than $60 billion in economic damages and environmental damages beyond calculation.…”