Statement of Jennifer Krill, Executive Director, EARTHWORKS, on the passage of the Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources Act of 2009, H.R. 3534 (CLEAR Act) in the House Natural Resources Committee on July 15, 2010
Washington D.C.,— EARTHWORKS applauds Chairman Rahall courage and leadership to address the broad range of reforms needed for America's oil and gas industry. As we have seen from the oil disaster in the Gulf, we can no long rely on a trust us mentality from the oil and gas companies. The CLEAR Act adopted today by the House Natural Resources Committee will establish important reforms in both offshore and onshore oil and gas extraction to protect communities, our water and our wildlife from damage caused by the reckless development of energy resources. We encourage the House to take swift action on these reforms by passing the CLEAR Act.
The CLEAR Act includes several reforms of the offshore and onshore oil and gas programs, and updates our mining statutes. Specifically, EARTHWORKS is pleased to see provisions in the bill to:
Establish best management practices for safety and environmental compliance that will be adopted for onshore operations
Eliminate unnecessary restrictions on the agencies involved with reviews of offshore and onshore permits to ensure the highest level of integrity in these reviews.
Eliminate unnecessary restrictions on the agencies involved with reviews of offshore and onshore permits to ensure the highest level of integrity in these reviews.
Establish full funding for land and water conservation activities from the receipts of offshore energy development.
Update the Mineral Leasing Act and the Mining Law of 1872 to give the Secretary of the Interior discretion to determine where uranium exploration and development should be taking place on our federal lands.
Establish new bonding and inspection and enforcement criteria for offshore and onshore development, to protect taxpayers from bearing the costs of future accidents.
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