The House is voting on legislation to address the horrible tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico and prevent future incidents.
It's more than unfortunate that it's taken this and several other tragedies for us to finally make these common sense and overdue changes to the laws regulating oil and gas drilling.
For too long, we've allowed the biggest oil companies to act like our nation's "public" land and waters belong to them. Lax regulations, minimal environmental oversight, and a prioritization of dirty fuels over clean, renewable energy have led us to this point.
While the legislation we will vote on today does not address the larger issue of why we are drilling further offshore and deeper than ever before (think: our serious addiction to oil, which the Senate must address with comprehensive energy and climate legislation), it does take some real steps to prevent future oil spills -- both on land and offshore.
The two pieces of legislation -- the Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act and the Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act bill -- will ensure that American taxpayers are reimbursed fairly for the oil and gas taken from public lands. It will also increase transparency, safety and accountability in the development of energy resources, while also protecting employees who report safety violations.
While I am especially pleased that the bill closes royalty loopholes, so that oil and gas companies can no longer exploit public lands without paying (despite the profits they make selling it to American consumers for ever higher prices), this must only be the beginning.
The next step should be ending unnecessary tax breaks for the largest oil corporations. In 2008, the top five oil companies made a combined profit of $100 billion. In 2009, ExxonMobil hit an all-time record $45.2 billion in profits, yet paid no U.S. federal income taxes. In fact, they got a $156 million tax refund.
Legislation I introduced would repeal $35 billion worth of tax credits, deductions, and exemptions over the next five years, and provide us with billions of dollars for our nation's other numerous priorities.
Today we take a first step that we should have taken years ago, but many more advances will be necessary as we work to not just hold companies accountable, but fundamentally change the equation to protect the environment and taxpayers.
Follow Rep. Earl Blumenauer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/repblumenauer
Rev. Chuck Freeman: Citizens, Resist the Squeeze Play on Your Minds
At 85 million barrels per day you could make a pipeline of steel drums:
* 42 gallons equals one oil barrel
* A 55 gallon steel drum is 3 feet tall by 22 inches wide
* A mile is 5,280 feet
* The circumference of the earth is 24,901 miles
* Speed of sound 768 mph
(85,000,000bbl x 42gal) / 55gal = 64,909,090 fifty-five gallon steel drums
(64,9090,090 x 3ft) / 5280ft = 36,880 mile long pipeline
36,880 / 24,901 = 1.48 or a pipeline stretching 1 1/2 times around the earth....every day 24/7
(36,880 / 24hr) / 768mph = Mach 2 or twice the speed of sound the oil would need to flow to replace the 85 million barrels being consumed every day.
(36,880 x 365days) / 24,901miles = 540 times you could encircle the earth every year with steel drums.
And now you have the IEA saying this: http://oildepletiondebate.blogspot.com/2008/11/iea-world-energy-outlook-2008.html
The US military saying this: http://oildepletiondebate.blogspot.com/2010/04/united-states-joint-forces-command-us.html
You have oil industry insiders saying this and frustrating that what they are saying is falling on your deaf ears:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd7QGbNKxoQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUVY2qrEfd8&feature=related
http://www.financialsensenewshour.com/broadcast/fsn2010-0605-2.mp3
www.netcastdaily.com/broadcast/fsn2009-1114-3a.mp3
Who is Big Oil if Exxon ranks 17th?
http://www.petrostrategies.org/Links/Worlds_Largest_Oil_and_Gas_Companies_Sites.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6P3w1qJRiM
“The Cap and Trade Con Exposed - It's your money they want - It's a "Tax" for Goldman Sachs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhtNa7lHWO8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwqyfYzt16Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7zKCaSLISQ&feature=relatedâ€
BP only cares about maintaining their image so they can keep making money. They don’t care about the people their actions and policies have killed.
The human cost of the oil spill and BPs corruption is huge, not only with this oil spill disaster, but with many other losses of life on other BP rigs.
Everyone please take a look at the following tribute by Steve Joynt to the 11 men who died on the Deepwater Horizon, “Oil spill Day 100: The 11 men who died on the Deepwater Horizonâ€
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/07/oil_spill_day_100_the_11_men_w.html
We can never lose sight of the human cost of BP’s and others’ malfeasance.
And be sure to read Robert Reich’s article, “The Final Lesson of BP†here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-final-lesson-of-bp_b_662963.html
Eliminate ALL break and subsides for fossil and nukes.
Save money, cut the deficit, employ everyone, cut energy dependence:
Immediately order energy retrofits for all gov buildings.
Rooftop PV Solar, Offshore wind, and Waste Bio char, can supply the worlds energy and fuel needs: cleanly, safely, Forever, within 12 years and cheaper in the long run 2-6 cents now, and 26$ per barrel bio oils.
http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm
about 1$ per Wp solar panels, new.
install solar plants for about $1.30 per watt, compared with an industry average of about $1.75, according to Hardy." http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=a7K1FZoNgJ0w
Wind: “between two and six cents today, depending on location.12 Wind power approaches competitiveness with conventional generation at this price point. “
http://www.repp.org/articles/static/1/binaries/wind%20issue%20brief_FINAL.pdf
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/publ/BiofBioproBioref%203,%20547-562,%202009%20Laird.pdf
26$ per barrel bio oil from waste bio char.