Frank Pallone: “I heard my colleague from our committee say that this was a perfecting amendment, and what I see it as is just a more…”

“I heard my colleague from our committee say that this was a perfecting amendment, and what I see it as is just a more bureaucracy amendment. The problem here with the underlying bill is that it basically makes it impossible for the President to use--to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when there is an emergency in order to lower prices or to increase the supply. What this amendment does is to put even more restrictions or make it even more likely that a delay would occur because the gentleman says that the plan required would include a list of parcels planned to be offered for lease, including for each parcel, the size of the parcel by acre, the location of the parcel, any permits and approvals necessary to access the parcel, and produce oil and gas on the parcel. Look, the bottom line is what it appears the sponsor wants is for the Federal Government to spend its limited time during a crisis looking over maps of critical public lands and drawing arbitrary lines instead of taking rapid actions to lower gas prices for everyday families. The underlying bill doesn't work because it puts all kinds of restrictions on the President's ability to use the reserve, either to lower prices, or to increase the supply in an emergency, and this amendment only makes it worse. It would throw more barriers to the Secretary using the reserve to protect American families and businesses.…”