Kevin Brady: “Thank you, Chairman Hastings. I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. DeFAZIO. I claim the time in opposition to the…”

“Thank you, Chairman Hastings. I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. DeFAZIO. I claim the time in opposition to the amendment. The CHAIR. The gentleman from Oregon is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, at the end of the general debate we had some creative math and/or cherry-picking of years to make a point that is not accurate. The point is that oil production from Federal lands today is higher than it was at the end of the Bush administration--596 million barrels compared to 565 in 2008. Now, in the offshore, when you use a certain number of years, obviously there is some anomaly. The anomaly was the worst oil spill disaster in the history of the United States, which was the Macondo blowup in the gulf, which of course set back leasing activity and development in the gulf for a period of time. However, we have now adopted new regulations. We're actually requiring blowup preventers that work and a few other sorts of things that the Obama administration has done to make the drilling safer. Under this administration, there are now more floating rigs in the gulf than before the spill and during the Bush years; and we approved 112 Deepwater drilling permits last year--the most since 2005. Of course that drilling is being conducted more safely than it has in the past.…”