On the recordJuly 20, 2010
I don't think this White House or Washington has a clue as to how damaging this drilling moratorium has been just on average American workers who are tied not just to the gulf, but energy production offshore that spreads out. I saw a study the other day, nearly all 50 States, nearly every congressional district risks job losses as a result of this drilling moratorium. We're already seeing companies who are redeploying their rigs to Egypt, moving their investments out of the United States, to Brazil, West Africa, the Middle East. And those rigs won't be coming back any time soon. Typical rig in the gulf in deep water has 1,500 workers tied to it, a thousand or more vendors. When they leave the gulf they don't come back for years. So we already have businesses laying off workers, moving equipment, infrastructure outside the United States, already cutting their capital budget for future investment in the United States. And it doesn't take long before you have our energy infrastructure and headquarters leaving the United States as well. There are literally tens of thousands of workers tied directly to the gulf, more than 170,000 at immediate risk of this. And yet two thoughts: One, Monday the President was in front of the White House talking about playing politics with people's jobs. Playing politics with people's jobs. That's exactly what his drilling moratorium is doing along the Gulf of Mexico.
