Hoyer Floor Remarks on Legislation to Block Offshore Drilling, Protect the National Wildlife Arctic Refuge

I thank you gentleman from California for yielding I thank mister Bishop for his leadership as well and I rise in strong support of this bill introduced by Representative Cunningham from South Carolina and two others on the floor this week that will be considered all three are bipartisan bills I wanna thank you mister Cunningham for his leadership on this particular issue a permanent moratorium on offshore oil and gas development and pristine untouched areas will help Ecosystems and economies all along our nation's at Atlantic and Pacific Coast The other bills will we be considering this week will prevent oil and gas drilling along the Gulf Coast of Florida and protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge The Trump administration is forcing a false choice between energy security and the health and safety of our coastal and Arctic environments if we fail To protect vulnerable coastal and Arctic ecosystems we put at risk the livelihoods of millions of Americans in those communities that depend on their continued health and abundance in coastal communities on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the Gulf of Mexico Tourism outdoor recreation and fishing are crucial to their economies in Alaska The Witch and people rely on the carefully balanced Arctic ecosystems for hunting Fishing and their ancient way of life drilling in these areas creates an unacceptable risk both to our environment and to the people who live in those communities Mister Speaker, the United States is now the largest producer of oil and gas in the world No one would have thought that possible even a decade ago and yet here we are thanks to advances in technology over the past six years, we've doubled the amount of oil we export all of that has been made possible without touching valuable environments like the Arctic refuge or off the Coast of my home state of Maryland the Atlantic or the Pacific the Trump administration is proposing to open the entire Eastern seaboard For oil and gas development from the Gulf of Maine to the streets of Florida States up and down the Atlantic including my own state oppose this move We've seen what happens when something goes wrong as was the case with the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 an oil spill making its way into the Chesapeake Bay and destroying our world-class fisheries or harming the beautiful beaches of Maryland's Chesapeake and Atlantic Shores Wood Be devastating instead of doubling down on fossil fuels we ought to be working to reconfigure our economy to meet the challenges of climate change and sees the opportunities from developing new clean energy technologies and leading the world in transitioning to a low and eventually zero carbon economy The Democratic Lighthouse already mister Speaker took action Climate change earlier this year with the passage of HR nine the Climate Action Now Act which would uphold our commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement which the President and advisedly withdrew from We will also continue taking meaningful action to stop the Trump administration's rollback of rules meant to protect clean air clean water and natural environment for generations to come our children Speaker and our grandchildren and yes our great grandchildren deserve to inherit an Earth and an American in America that is clean healthy and sustainable We ignore this challenge mister Speaker at our apparel and I thank the gentleman from California leading this effort I thank mister Cunningham and I rise in strong support of the legislation we're going to consider and yield back the balance of my time and yields back the balance. The time gentleman from California is recognized