On the recordJuly 30, 2010
I rise in support of this amendment by my colleague from Louisiana (Mr. Melancon). As we all know, this is an unprecedented disaster. It's already extracted a human toll, it's extracting an environmental toll, and of course now with the moratorium it's extracting an economic toll. So when you look at what this amendment does, it says if somebody breaks the law, if they actually have a spill that's at this level, a million barrels or more, then they actually get hit with heavier penalties. And those penalties would be dedicated to restoring our coast. Because as we can all see, people all across the country who have expressed so much appreciation and support for what we're doing to try to battle this disaster, they also understand just how fragile this ecosystem is. And they've seen the destruction to our ecosystem. And of course it hasn't just started. Our coast has been eroding for years. In fact, we lose a football field of land along the gulf coast of Louisiana every 37 minutes. So just in the time we have been debating this legislation, the Gulf Coast of Louisiana has lost a football field of land. And this goes on every single day. So by dedicating these funds that are only generated if somebody spills a million barrels or more into our gulf to this fund to restore our coast, I think it's the right thing to do.
