Joe Barton: “Woman, Shell Oil Company has spent 5 years of time and $3 billion trying to drill one well in the Arctic Ocean--5 years…”

“Woman, Shell Oil Company has spent 5 years of time and $3 billion trying to drill one well in the Arctic Ocean--5 years and $3 billion. In that time period, worldwide and in other areas of the Outer Continental Shelf of the world, they have drilled and received permits for over 200 wells--200 and the rest of the world ``zero''--in the Arctic Ocean. All this bill does is set up a fair procedure so that any company that wishes to drill a well--and the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, should probably be renamed under the Obama administration the ``energy prohibition administration''--can go through the permitting process and get a decision within an adequate time period. Our friends in Russia are drilling wells in the territorial waters in the Arctic Ocean up there. Our friends in Norway are drilling wells in the Arctic Ocean in their territorial waters. We in the United States, because of bureaucratic foot-dragging at the EPA, are refusing to even let one well be drilled. This bill changes that. It sets timetables. It sets standards. It determines where you measure the emissions. There will be some emissions when you drill a few wells in the Arctic Ocean, but they're not going to be extensive. This bill says that you determine the emissions at the shoreline, which in the case of this particular well is about 80 miles away, and you measure it there.…”