Pete Domenici: “the policies set forth in this bill will begin to move us in the right direction. I urge my colleagues to support its…”

“the policies set forth in this bill will begin to move us in the right direction. I urge my colleagues to support its passage and to look at it seriously. First, the bill allows for States on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to petition the Federal Government to opt out of the broad moratorium that for two decades has locked up America's assets and forced us to turn toward unstable foreign nations to power our lives. I believe it is time that we ask the Atlantic and Pacific coastal States to take a real look at whether we could drill distances from their shores without doing any harm and adding substantially to the American supply for all our citizens, not just the coastal citizens. I believe the time is ripe. I believe right-headed people will consider that might be a reality. If we were to do it, we were told just that contains literally millions of barrels of crude oil and billions of cubic feet of natural gas for the American energy future. First, this bill allows these Atlantic and Pacific coasts to petition their Government to opt out, as I said, and these are large quantities of assets that are American. Together, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans contain oil reserves, and here are the numbers, what we know without doing a detailed reconnaissance. There are reserves of up to 14 billion barrels and natural gas reserves totaling 55 trillion cubic feet.”