Chellie Pingree: “Once again, I remind everyone, we are here to protect the welfare of the American public. This amendment would prohibit…”

“Once again, I remind everyone, we are here to protect the welfare of the American public. This amendment would prohibit the Bureau of Land Management from balancing oil and gas development with protection of lands that harbor significant subsistence uses and resources throughout the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. My colleague is describing the Willow Project, an oil drilling project by ConocoPhillips that is located on the plain of the North Slope of Alaska in the National Petroleum Reserve. This amendment would prohibit the administration from stopping that project for all of the reasons we have previously discussed. My colleagues are always talking about if we don't do this drilling, if we don't do this drilling in significantly critical areas like the North Slope of Alaska, like places where climate change is already having an unreasonable impact, we will have to go to untrustworthy foreign sources. Why is it they always use that argument, that somehow we have to go to untrustworthy foreign sources? Our goal is to convert to renewable energy, to have all American energy, whether it is wind or solar or tile or so many of the other opportunities that we have out there to make sure we do invest in America and American jobs instead of misguided projects like this. This amendment also prohibits the BLM's ability to respond to changing conditions in the Arctic while providing transparency and conservation and development decisions. Mr.…”