Replies

H.R. 3534 puts the 9.2 million jobs supported by American oil and natural gas at risk by raising taxes, blocking American energy development, continuing a moratorium on deepwater drilling and completely eliminating economic liability caps. Members may have the following additional concerns with this legislation:

De Facto Drilling Moratorium: The bill would impose a de facto moratorium on offshore oil and gas production by increasing taxes and regulation, allowing the approval process for exploration plans to be extended indefinitely, adding layers of bureaucracy, and imposing unlimited liability caps. The Obama moratorium has already cost tens of thousands of jobs and now Democrats in Congress want to exacerbate the problem, especially on the Gulf coast.

New Tax on American Energy: The CLEAR Act includes a new tax on oil and natural gas produced on all existing and new federal onshore and offshore leases. The tax would be $2 per barrel of oil and 20 cents per million British thermal units of natural gas. This cost would eventually be passed on to American consumers of energy—small business, families, and farmers. It is estimated that this tax will total $22 billion in ten years, and the taxes will eventually climb to $3 billion per year. Of course, this new tax only applies to American energy, giving a distinct advantage to foreign oil and gas and jeopardizing American energy jobs.
Unlimited Liability Kills Jobs and Local Revenue: The CLEAR Act includes unlimited liability caps for offshore energy producers. This would effectively eliminate smaller and independent producers from operating if they cannot obtain insurance policies to cover their operations. According to a recent study, these producers account for more than half of offshore jobs—meaning a loss of 300,000 jobs and $147 billion in federal, state and local revenues. Members may be concerned that a liability increase is premature because under current law if a responsible party is found to be grossly negligent, engaged in willful misconduct or to have violated a federal safety, construction or operating regulation, it is responsible for all costs.

Billions of Dollars for New, Mandatory Spending: The bill includes over $30 billion in new mandatory spending for two programs that have nothing to do with the Gulf oil spill—the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Historic Preservation Fund.

Protectionist “Build America” Provisions: The CLEAR Act includes a make-work provision for labor unions requiring all rigs to be U.S.-built, owned and operated. Currently, rigs are already built to U.S. standards, staffed by U.S. crews and inspected by U.S. governmental agencies. Drilling rigs are extremely complex platforms and the U.S. lacks the capacity to build one from scratch in our globalized economy. This provision would have the effect of driving rigs out of the U.S., thus raising energy costs for Americans. Estimates suggest that this provision would shut down 25 percent of today’s oil and gas production and make new U.S. offshore projects uneconomic by raising costs 30 to 100 percent.

Political Cover for the President: In the version of the CLEAR Act to be considered on the House floor, Democrat leadership has removed a provision authored by Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to establish a bipartisan, independent National Commission on Outer Continental Shelf Oil Spill Prevention. This commission would be comprised of technical experts to study the events leading up to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Democrats are thus protecting the president’s own hand-picked, expert-deficient Commission. As Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings (R-WA) noted, “There is widespread agreement that no member of the President’s Commission possesses technical expertise in oil drilling, and several are on the record in opposition to offshore drilling and support a moratorium that will cost thousands of jobs.”

Seizes States’ Authority: The bill would enable the federal government to encroach on states’ offshore leasing programs by taking over permitting and dictating the type of technology to be used on state wells, seemingly even in the event that technology is improved in the future. This would reduce incentives for advances in energy technology and possibly even the development of safer designs and procedures moving forward.

Changing How Onshore Federal Land is Leased: The bill would change leasing onshore by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, which affects not just leasing for natural gas and oil, but also for renewable energy. This provision could lead to a decline in energy production on federal land and lost energy jobs.

Interior Secretary Slush Fund: The bill allows 10 percent of all offshore revenues to be spent on a new fund controlled by the Interior Secretary to issue ocean research grants. These funds can be earmarked.

COST
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that enacting this legislation would increase spending by $20.5 billion over ten years and would increase revenues by $22.2 billion over the same period. Interestingly, CBO predicts over $14 billion in litigation costs alone stemming from the new energy tax in this bill.

http://www.gop.gov/bill/111/2/hr3534

Law of the Sea Treaty

Thirty states will be encroached upon by Obama’s Executive Order establishing the National Ocean Council for control over America’s oceans, coastlines and the Great Lakes. Under this new council, states’ coastal jurisdictions will be subject to the United Nations’ Law Of Sea Treaty (LOST) in this UN Agenda 21 program. America’a oceans and coastlines will be broken into 9 regions that include the North East, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, the Gulf Coast, West Coast, the Great Lakes, Alaska, the Pacific Islands (including Hawaii) and the Caribbean.

Because of the decades of difficulty that the collectivists have had trying to ratify the Law Of Sea Treaty (LOST), Obama is sneaking it in through the back door, by way of Executive Order establishing the Council. Because LOST is a treaty, Obama’s Executive Order is not Constitutional as treaty ratification requires 2/3 approval from the Senate. Michael Shaw said that the Agenda 21 Convention on Biodiversity treaty of 1992 failed to pass Congress so it was executed through soft law and administratively on local levels, and Obama’s Executive Order is a similar soft law tactic to enact the LOST treaty.

In fact, our Constitutional form of government is being completely destroyed because buried in the CLEAR Act (HR 3534) there is a provision for a new council to oversee the outer continental shelf- it appears that this Regional Outer Shelf Council will be part of the National Ocean Council. This means that if Congress makes the CLEAR Act into law, then the implementation of the UN Law Of Sea Treaty, as part of the National Ocean Council’s agenda, will be “ratified” in a convoluted and stealth manner, in full opposition to the Constitution and its intent.

The excuse for this extreme action is because of the emergency in the Gulf of Mexico. Obama and Congress have always had the legal and military power to force BP Oil to take all necessary action to stop the gusher and clean the oil spew. While there is evidence that the problems in the Gulf have been a result of collusion and planned incompetence, it begs the question, why in world should America’s oceans and resources be controlled by Obama appointees?

http://www.truthistreason.net/national-ocean-council

Meet the National Ocean Council

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/19/meet-national-ocean-council

Co-Chairs
White House Council on Environmental Quality
Nancy Sutley, Chair

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Dr. John P. Holdren, Director

NOC Members
Department of Agriculture
Tom Vilsack
Secretary

Department of Commerce
Gary Locke
Secretary

Dr. Jane Lubchenco
Undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere
NOAA Administrator

Department of Defense
Robert M. Gates
Secretary

Environmental Protection Agency
Lisa P. Jackson
Administrator

Department of Energy
Dr. Steven Chu
Secretary

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (invitation pending)
Jon Wellinghoff
Chairman

Department of Health and Human Services
Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary

Department of Homeland Security
Janet Napolitano
Secretary

Department of the Interior
Ken Salazar
Secretary

Joint Chiefs of Staff
Adm. Mike Mullen
Chairman

Department of Justice
Eric Holder
Attorney General

Department of Labor
Hilda L. Solis
Secretary

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Charles F. Bolden, Jr.
Administrator

National Science Foundation
Dr. Cora Marrett
Acting Director

Department of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary

Department of Transportation
Ray LaHood
Secretary

Office of the Vice President
TBD

Director of National Intelligence
TBD

White House Office of Management and Budget
Peter Orszag
Director

Assistant to the President for National Security
General James Jones (Ret.)

Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
John Brennan

Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy
Melody Barnes

Assistant to the President for Economic Policy
Lawrence Summers

Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Policy
Carol Browner
Director