Lois Capps: “I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, this is a straightforward amendment, and it is overwhelmingly…”

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, this is a straightforward amendment, and it is overwhelmingly supported by my constituents, so I hope we can all agree to it. The amendment strikes a harmful and unnecessary provision in the underlying bill that mandates new drilling--mandates new drilling--in the sensitive waters off Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in California. The majority says this new drilling is necessary to help fund the transportation bill. But according to CBO, any new drilling off southern California would, at best, generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue, while the gap in transportation funding is measured in the tens of billions of dollars. Mr. Chairman, leaving aside the specious funding arguments that the authors of the bill have made, the people most affected, my constituents, don't want new drilling. My colleagues have heard me invoke Santa Barbara's devastating 1969 oil spill before. And that's because it galvanized central coast residents and virtually the whole State of California against more offshore drilling. We were outraged by the damage to the environment, the wildlife, and to our economy. And we understood the havoc that similar blowouts would wreak upon our economy, especially tourism and fishing industries. It's why California permanently banned new oil and gas leasing in State waters in 1994.…”