Jim Costa: “the gentleman from Georgia indicated earlier in his comments with regards to statistics gained by the Minerals and…”

“the gentleman from Georgia indicated earlier in his comments with regards to statistics gained by the Minerals and Management Service, which the last time I've checked has been under the executive branch of our Republican administration, has increased the leases to public lands, both on and offshore, 361 percent. In addition, the gentleman from Georgia indicated that there is an increase in revenues to the Minerals and Management Service, therefore to our Nation's treasury, because, in fact, more leases are being provided, and there is more oil and gas being derived from those oil leased lands. It is illogical and it would be unfactual to conclude that if revenues are up and more energy companies are seeking those leases, that they are seeking leases to lands that do not have oil nor gas. It is clearly illogical and unfactual. These energy companies are smart, competitive companies. They do not lease lands that they have not surveyed and that they do not have a great degree of certainty, based on the seismology, that in fact there is oil and gas there; otherwise, these record bids that the gentleman made reference to that just came back 2 months ago would not be record bids for dry holes.”