Chellie Pingree: “Mr. Bishop, thank you for allowing me this time. Mr. Chairman, this amendment would prohibit any oil and gas drilling on…”

“Mr. Bishop, thank you for allowing me this time. Mr. Chairman, this amendment would prohibit any oil and gas drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf in the northeast, including my home State of Maine. An accident or a spill off our coast would be devastating to our working waterfronts. We don't have to look any further than the Deepwater Horizon disaster to see the damage an accident can do to a coastal economy. Not only that, but it would be decades before any oil that is discovered would ever make it to market, decades that should be spent researching and investing in new sources of clean energy and breaking our dependence on oil. The Republican proposals of this bill would not only carelessly expand the permitting for current gas and oil leases but also encourage expanded drilling. I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this commonsense amendment and voting against this ill-conceived bill.”