mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman for the time . 
mr. chairman , i rise in strong opposition to the peterson amendment . 
this amendment guts the long-standing bipartisan moratorium that currently protects the nation 's most sensitive coastal and marine areas , areas including california , florida , the eastern gulf of mexico , the pacific northwest , new england , and the entire atlantic coast . 
it is completely unnecessary . 
proponents say that we need to drill offshore to put an end to the high energy prices . 
the only problem with this argument is that the moratoria are not where the resources are . 
mms released its latest ocs resources survey just last year . 
eighty-one percent of the undiscovered , uneconomically recoverable natural gas in the ocs is located in the central and western gulf of mexico where drilling is currently allowed and under way . 
this amendment means drilling in the coastal areas of the united states where there is not a whole lot of gas and oil , where tens of millions of our citizens have made it clear they do not want any more gas drilling , and it means gutting the presidential-congressional moratoria that had been in for decades , reaffirmed by presidents george h.w . 
bush , clinton , george bush , every congress since 1982 . 
state officials have also endorsed the moratoria , including governor bush , governor schwarzenegger . 
this house has voted three times in recent years to stop the oil drilling in waters off florida , california , and the entire ocs . 
i urge my colleagues to defeat this amendment . 
mr. chairman , i rise in strong opposition to the peterson amendment . 
this amendment would gut the longstanding , bipartisan moratorium that currently protects some of the nation 's most sensitive coastal and marine areas . 
these moratoria areas include california , florida and the eastern gulf of mexico , oregon , washington , new england , and the entire atlantic coast . 
this amendment is an attack on the moratorium , and an attack on the rights of coastal states and local governments to raise legitimate objections to offshore development that affects their coastlines . 
mr. chairman , this amendment is a bad idea for a number of reasons , not least because it is completely unnecessary . 
proponents of the amendment say that we need to drill offshore to put an end to high energy prices . 
the only problem with this argument is the moratoria areas are n't where the resources are . 
the minerals management service conducts a resources survey every five years . 
the latest comprehensive analysis assessment was finished in 2003 . 
this assessment includes estimates of undiscovered oil and natural gas that is conventionally and economically recoverable . 
we already know , for instance , that 81 percent of the nation 's undiscovered , economically recoverable natural gas on the ocs is located in the central and western gulf of mexico -- where drilling is currently allowed and underway . 
the amendment would mean drilling in coastal areas of the united states where there is n't a whole lot of oil and gas and where tens of millions of our citizens have made it clear that they do n't want any more drilling . 
mr. chairman , a little history might be in order here . 
in 1990 , president george h.w . 
bush announced an executive moratorium ending new drilling off california , oregon , washington , florida and the entire east coast . 
president clinton extended it to 2012 . 
both actions were met with widespread acclaim by a public that knows how valuable -- environmentally and economically -- our coastlines are . 
and , of course , congress has supported these actions for the last 20 years by restricting mms from spending funds to support any new drilling or pre-drilling activities in these areas . 
in addition , president george w. bush endorsed both moratoria in his fy 06 budget . 
state officials -- including florida governor jeb bush and california governor arnold schwarzenegger -- have endorsed the moratoria . 
and , the house of representatives has voted three times in recent years to stop new drilling in the waters off florida , california and the entire outer continental shelf . 
this amendment is bad policy and reflects the misguided attempt to try and drill our way out of energy problems . 
mr. chairman , the united states has 3 percent of the known resources but we account for 25 percent of demand . 
despoiling all of our coastal areas in the fruitless search for `` energy independence '' is n't going to work . 
coastal communities continue to speak -- in strong bipartisan voices -- to protect their state 's sensitive coastal resources and productive coastal economies . 
they are too economically valuable to risk with more drilling . 
it takes only one accident or spill to devastate the local marine environment and economy . 
mr. peterson suggests that his amendment would be limited to exploration for natural gas only , and that this approach would somehow avoid the risks of offshore oil drilling . 
there are serious flaws with this theory . 
there is virtually no way to explore only for natural gas without exploring for oil . 
moreover , natural gas development also has substantial and long-lasting impacts , including noise , water and air pollution . 
and it impacts the tourism and fishing industries . 
mr. chairman , last congress , 56 republicans and 172 democrats voted to protect the ocs moratorium . 
in that vote , the house demonstrated its commitment to protecting our vital coastal communities . 
a vote against this amendment is the same thing -- a vote to protect coastal areas from new drilling . 
we need to reject these attempts to weaken existing protections for our coastal waters . 
i urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment . 
assessment of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources of the nation 's outer continental shelf , 2003 update using a play-based assessment methodology , the minerals management service estimated a mean of 76.0 billion barrels of undiscovered recoverable oil and a mean of 406.1 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered recoverable natural gas in the federal outer continental shelf of the united states . 
this assessment represents an update of selected basins of the federal outer continental shelf ( ocs ) . 
assessments of the entire ocs were made by the minerals management service ( mms ) in 1995 and 2000 ( mms , 1996 and mms , 2001 ) . 
the next mms assessment of the entire ocs is scheduled for completion in mid 2005 . 
areas selected for this update included those where significant new discoveries were made , such as parts of the gulf of mexico , and areas where new geological concepts have been developed , such as the atlantic ocs margin and the north aleutian basin of alaska . 
results from this selective update were combined with the year 2000 assessment results from other areas to yield the regional totals presented here . 
the mms utilizes a probabilistic play-based approach to estimate the undiscovered technically recoverable resources ( utrr ) of oil and gas for individual plays . 
this methodology is suitable for both conceptual plays where there is little or no specific information available , and for developed plays where there are discovered oil and gas fields and considerable information is available . 
after estimation , individual play results are aggregated to larger areas such as basins and regions . 
this assessment is limited to technically recoverable undiscovered resources of oil and gas . 
unlike mms 's 1995 and 2000 assessments , it does not contain economic analyses of what portion of these technically recoverable resources are commercially viable . 
the mms estimated that 76.0 billion barrels of oil and 406.1 trillion of cubic feet of gas are technically recoverable from the u.s. federal ocs . 
these results are presented by area in table 1 , which lists mean values as wells as the 95th and 5th percentile values representing high and low probability cases , respectively . 
greater range between the high and low values indicated higher uncertainty in the estimates . 
these values represent a 1 percent increase in oil resources and a 12.1 percent increase in gas resources when compared with mms 's 2000 assessment . 
the increases are due to changes in the assessments of the atlantic and gulf of mexico ocs areas . 
both the alaska and pacific ocs area resource estimates are essentially unchanged from 2000 . 
the increases also account for the approximately 2 bbbl oil and 8 tcfg that were discovered and moved to the reserves category during this time period . 
in the atlantic ocs area significant new knowledge and information was gained as a result of recent drilling in the scotian basin offshore canada . 
applying this new information led to adjustments to risks applied to previous defined plays , and to the definition of new plays resulting in increased estimates for oil and gas utrr of 52 percent and 19 percent respectively over mms 's 2000 study . 
gulf of mexico ocs oil resources have remained flat while gas resources have increased by over 20 percent relative to mms 's 2000 study . 
this increase is attributed primarily to plays in the deep shelf areas of the central and western gulf of mexico , and to the eastern gulf of mexico . 
results of new drilling and discoveries led to revisions of plays and their associated risks that significantly increased gas resources . 
this is especially true for conceptual plays where valuable insights into the presence of source rock , maturation , migration , trapping , and reservoir facies were gained . 
minerals management service ( mms ) , 1996 : an assessment of the undiscovered hydrocarbon potential of the nation 's outer continental shelf , ocs report mms 96-0034 . 
-- , 2001 : outer continental shelf petroleum assessment , 2000 , ocs report mms 2001-036 , 12 p . 