NRDC President: House Bills Needlessly Open Our Shores to Potential Disaster

While House Grants Big Oil’s Wishes, Senate Leadership Is Right to Curb Tax Breaks

WASHINGTON (May 12, 2011) - After the House today passed another bill mandating a dramatic expansion of offshore drilling while reducing safety precautions, Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a former member of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, issued the following statement:

"Even if you're for more drilling, you ought to be against these bills. They open some of our most pristine and beautiful shorelines up to the same sort of potential disaster we saw in the Gulf of Mexico with BP Deepwater Horizon - and they make the system that oversees offshore drilling less safe than before the Gulf spill. And none of this will make a noticeable dent in gas prices.

“Despite the nonsensical legislation passed by the House, we hope the Senate will reject efforts to grant Big Oil an unlimited wish list and billions in tax breaks to boot.”

For Beinecke’s blog on the issue, please see: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/fbeinecke/new_drilling_bills_will_do_not.html

For an explanation of the House drilling bills, please see NRDC government affairs director David Goldston’s blog here: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dgoldston/casting_oil_upon_the_waters_th.html

For an explanation of why more drilling isn’t the answer for high gas prices, see NRDC’s Web site here: http://www.nrdc.org/energy/gasprices/

And to speak with an NRDC expert on drilling, legislation or gas prices, please contact Elizabeth Heyd, 202-289-2424, eheyd@nrdc.org or Bob Keefe, 202-289-2373, bkeefe@nrdc.org