Texas Insider Report: Washington D.C. During this time of record levels of unemployment we must not stand down while a job-killing provision should receive more scrutiny not less said Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) David Vitter (R-LA) Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and others in a letter to Senators Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI) and Thad Cochran (R-MS) Chairman & Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations urging them to protect Gulf Coast jobs by removing a provision in a House-passed bill that delays the approval of new offshore oil & gas exploration plans. The full text of the letter is below.
December 9 2010
The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye Chairman
U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations
Room S 128 The Capitol
Washington D.C. 20510
The Honorable Thad Cochran Ranking Member
U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations
Room S 128 The Capitol
Washington D.C. 20510
Dear Chairman Inouye & Ranking Member Cochran:
We write to draw your immediate attention to a matter of the utmost importance for our nations energy security economy and workforce.
In numerous drafts of the Continuing Resolution (CR) including a version which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives the administration inserted rider language which would make significant policy changes to the offshore production of domestic energy.
As the Senate considers the House passed CR we request you support our action to remove this job-killing provision.
Yesterday the House passed its CR which contained a section which would allow the Department of the Interior (DOI) to extend the current review period for 
offshore exploration plans from 30 to 90 days. Currently the DOI has failed to approve any new deepwater offshore permits as thousands of workers in the Gulf of Mexico are at risk of losing their jobs.
Allowing the DOI to continue to drag its feet in the permitting process is unacceptable and will result in the loss of thousands of jobs especially in the Gulf of Mexico.
Another concern of ours is that this language has not been analyzed and scrutinized by the appropriate Senate committees.
Such a proper review would allow an understanding of whether this provision will result in Environmental Assessments (EA) on every single permit to drill. This would open the door for environmental lawsuits under the National Environmental Policy Act by the environmental community on every application that could create jobs and produce domestic offshore energy.
Further the federal government could pay the environmental community under the Equal Access to Justice Act and through the Judgment Fund to file lawsuits with taxpayer money that will put taxpayers out of work. This would affect all future leases.
Additionally the administration could be forcing a legislative material breach of contract on all current leaseholders. The Supreme Court in 2000 said of a similar change in federal law:
the new statute prevented the Government from keeping that promise. The breach substantially impaired the value of the contracts ... and therefore the Government must give the companies their money back.
The DOI is in a predicament which may already lead to litigation but this language would put the entire failure of the offshore permitting program and the legal/financial responsibility on the American taxpayer with the fault on Congress. During this time of record levels of unemployment we must not stand down while a job-killing provision should receive more scrutiny not less. Failure to remove this rider from the CR will devastate an entire regions workforce and will make us more dependent on foreign sources of energy. We ask you to take the appropriate action to remove Section 2724 from the CR. Sincerely David Vitter United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison United States Senator John Cornyn United States Senator Jeff Sessions United States Senator Roger Wicker United States Senator
