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Rep. Pete Stark

Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 3408, the so-called ``PIONEERS Act.'' The Republican majority is bringing this bill to the floor under a procedural charade that has us voting on three separate bills that will magically become a transportation bill at some point in the future when the Speaker is able to twist enough arms to pass the other pieces.

An obvious question to ask about H.R. 3408 is: what does it have to do with transportation? Not much. Although this bill is a grab bag of goodies for the oil and gas industry, it will do virtually nothing to repair our crumbling roads and bridges.

The legislation requires drilling off the coast of Southern California and overrides current law to forbid the State of California from haying any input into where, when, and how the drilling will occur. So much for states' rights. In their drive to hand out drilling leases to oil companies, Republicans are preventing my constituents in California from having any say on an issue that could have profound consequences on our state's economy and environment.

In the unlikely event that this bill becomes law, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be opened to oil drilling and the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline will be approved despite the fact that the President found the pipeline is not in the national interest. This legislation also mandates oil shale production on millions of acres of taxpayer owned lands in the West without environmental review. Producing oil from oil shale is an unproven process that requires massive amounts of water and energy and produces equally massive amounts of waste. That's why the Obama Administration continues to study the process and conduct research and development on the feasibility of oil shale extraction prior to opening up federal lands. Instead of following this reasonable approach, Republicans are ignoring science and pushing ahead.

Republican leaders claim that all of this new drilling might raise some money in the future that can then pay for transportation projects. Instead of relying on fictional revenues, we could simply end the $4 billion in yearly tax subsidies that the big oil companies enjoy. These companies raked in $137 billion in profits last year, yet taxpayers are still forced to subsidize them. Let's end those handouts to pay for transportation projects not provide yet more giveaways to the oil industry.

I urge all my colleagues to vote against this dirty energy bill.