Ed Markey

Do you believe, Mr. Secretary, that the authority of the President to deploy the Strategic Petroleum Reserve should depend on the permitting of the Keystone Pipeline?

The oil companies and the Republicans, they oppose deploying the SPR but their oil-above-all policy doesn't help drivers right now.

There are only two tools the President has to bring down gas prices right now--deploy the strategic petroleum reserve and get other countries in the world to use their Strategic Petroleum Reserves.

Shouldn't the Federal Government prepare for these impacts, as good stewards of Federal lands and taxpayers' dollars?

The National Environmental Policy Act process provides a way to solicit stakeholder input on Federal actions and improve decisions that the government makes.

The goal of the National Ocean Policy is to coordinate actions that impact our coasts and people and businesses utilizing these resources.

The price of economic growth need not, and will not be, deterioration in the quality of our lives and our surroundings.

The National Ocean Policy will help protect, maintain, and restore our national and coastal resources.

Through NEPA, Congress ensured that Federal agencies could no longer make decisions unilaterally.

The price of economic growth need not and will not be deterioration in the quality of our lives and our surroundings.

This legislation seems like an answer in search of a problem.

Big oil is cutting American jobs.

I guess that would make you the Wall Street Petroleum Institute.

Maybe the institute should be called the Canadian Petroleum Institute.

So maybe it should be called the Cayman Islands Petroleum Institute.

And so the State of Kentucky would be limited, in terms of what it could do.

The purposes of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, as outlined in section 102(f) of that law, is to 'strike a balance between protection of the environment and agricultural productivity and the nation's need for coal as an…

Do you believe, Mr. Director, that this legislation would have impacts for OSM that would extend well beyond the stream protection rule?

Yet that legislation is drafted so broadly that it could likely prevent OSM from issuing almost any regulation.

Ranking Member Markey and I have introduced legislation to establish an escalating fee on oil and gas leases.

And this law potentially could interfere with that.

And could you again tell me how much time I have remaining? The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Massachusetts has 1 minute remaining.

Would you be able to tell us, Mr. Chairman, who has the right to conclude debate? The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from California has the right to close.

May I ask, Mr. Chairman, how much time is remaining on either side. The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Massachusetts has 2\1/2\ minutes remaining. The gentleman from California has 2\1/2\ minutes remaining.

We have to find a cure.