Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
House of Representatives

Taxpayer Group: GOP Drill Bill “Not a Responsible Budget Approach”

12:18 PM EST on November 21, 2011

From an environmental perspective, the House GOP proposal to fund infrastructure with fees on fossil fuel extraction is clearly a disaster. But does it even pass the smell test from a dollars-and-cents perspective?

How quickly they forget: House Republicans salivate over oil drilling, forgetting about ecological risks and neglecting even to write that "infrastructure jobs" part of the bill. Photo: ##http://www.phongpo.com/tag/gulf-oil-mexico/##Mining News##

On Friday, House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources discussed legislation to open up the Central Gulf of Mexico, the Outer Continental Shelf off the coast of Virginia, and other sites currently off-limits for new oil drilling. Interspersed among the GOP cheerleading for drilling and deregulation were a few sober warnings about relying on the fossil fuel industry to fund transportation.

The subcommittee considered four bills, including one, introduced by Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH), which would use the revenues from energy exploration to fund transportation infrastructure. On Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner claimed that the "American-Made Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act" [PDF] would create jobs by increasing oil drilling while deregulating energy production.

Subcommittee Chair Doug Lamborn heaped effusive praise on Stivers' bill (and the three others), saying their passage would be “one of the largest single actions Congress could take to provide for domestic energy” and could create “hundreds of thousands of American jobs.”

The problem with the GOP rhetoric, according to the only Democrat to attend the hearing, Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), is that it's based on magical thinking. There is no precedent tethering Lamborn's estimates to past experience.

And no matter how rosy the GOP projections, the Stivers proposal won't address the looming transportation funding deficit, Markey said. The highest estimates for revenue at the federal level would cover barely one-fifteenth of what is needed to fund a six-year transportation bill, leaving a $70 billion shortfall. Even arch-conservative Republican James Inhofe of the Senate EPW Committee says oil-drilling is a "long-term" strategy at best.

Additionally, the Stivers bill include no mandate for funneling revenues into infrastructure. Infrastructure is mentioned in the bill title and summary and nowhere else. The bill provides for revenues to trickle back to the states off whose coasts the drilling is done, and that's all.

But concerns about the prospects for funding next year's infrastructure bill with energy revenues appeared to fall on deaf ears.

Less than 30 minutes into the three hour hearing, the question of transportation funding seemed lost among the prospect of opening up more lands for drilling and mining. It became clear that the focus of Stivers' bill is not infrastructure funding -- that's simply a way to justify expanded fossil fuel exploitation.

Most of the panelists spoke clearly along party lines, with one notable exception.

Ryan Alexander of the non-partisan Taxpayers for Common Sense does not oppose oil drilling, but she spoke against the Stivers plan. “Paying for a couple of years of transportation funding with expected revenues from an increase in oil and gas drilling that will likely take many years to get rolling is not a responsible budget approach,” she said. Alexander urged the committee to ensure that any revenues from drilling on federal lands go back to taxpayers, rather than to the states or back to producers through subsidies and tax breaks.

When Alexander argues for a "fix-it-first" approach, she's not talking about infrastructure maintenance -- she's talking about making revenue-sharing agreements from energy exploitation more fair. She said that the revenue-sharing provision in the Stivers bill is bad policy, and "in today’s fiscal climate it is downright foolish." You can read her full testimony here [PDF].

However, except for Rep. Markey, not one of the committee members offered suggestions to change existing revenue sharing agreements.

Speaking to Streetsblog outside of the hearing, Markey summed up his frustration: “If these four bills are intended to fund our transportation system over the six years, I hope Americans are not intending on going anywhere.”

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Want a Better 15-Minute City? Ask Residents What They Really Want

A new study from Bogotá models how other cities can ask a deeper set of questions about how to put essential needs within walking, biking or transit distance.

March 19, 2024

Tuesday’s Headlines Win the Gold

Two articles detail efforts in Paris and Los Angeles to put on (relatively) climate-friendly Olympic games in 2024 and 2028.

March 19, 2024

Monday’s Headlines Drink Your Milkshake

How does a president end wasteful subsidies for the highly profitable fossil fuel industry? Many have tried, but none have succeeded, including Joe Biden.

March 18, 2024

How — and Why — To Start a Neighborhood E-Bike Library

American advocates are loaning out e-bikes to their neighbors — and creating flocks of new riders.

March 18, 2024

What Urbanists’ Doug Burgum Lovefest Reveals About the ‘Why’ Behind Our Advocacy

I am far less interested in talking about Gov. Doug Burgum's politics than talking about his values, and how those values shape his urbanism, and thus the actual lives of the people he governs.

March 15, 2024
See all posts