The stumbling block to more offshore oil and natural gas drilling is not the environment or the economy, but rather it’s the view of platforms from shorelines, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) told a House hearing Tuesday. He recommended that lawmakers require companies to make their rigs more eye appealing, as is already being done in some coastal communities in California.

“Let me suggest that perhaps we could require a better-looking facade on…offshore oil rigs,” Rohrabacher said during a second hearing by the House Natural Resources Committee on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

“In Long Beach they have beautiful facades and no one complains. I’ll tell you right now if we would not be developing our offshore oil [resources] off of Long Beach, the city would go belly up economically. So let’s require that the facades look beautiful. Let’s paint them in green trees or whatever.” He further noted that there are “very beautiful” facades on top of rigs offshore Huntington Beach, CA, which he represents. Offshore drilling has occurred there for 30 years with “no significant problems.”

“So it is time for us to quit worrying about the view, start standing up for the economy and the environment, but also stand up for our people who have a right to the benefits of this vast wealth that is offshore,” Rohrabacher said.

Another California lawmaker, Democrat Rep. Lois Capps, disagreed. “I submit the view is not the issue,” but rather it is “routine toxic discharges” from oil and gas development. “This business of drilling is very dirty…We need to shift away from using fossil fuels.”

Rohrabacher signaled his support for expanded OCS development, but Rep Sam Farr (D-CA) said he was “strongly in favor” of Congress reinstating the moratorium on drilling off the West and East coasts and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico (see Daily GPI, Dec. 16, 2008). Even if a producer could guarantee no spill would occur, he said he still wouldn’t back offshore drilling. He noted that it was “high risk, low gain.”

The ocean “is sick,” Farr said, adding that a moratorium should remain in place “until we get this right.”

State Sen. Frank Wagner of Virginia, who has taken a “leadership role” in the effort to develop gas resources off the state’s coast, urged the House committee to work with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to keep the Virginia lease sale on schedule for as early as 2011 (see Daily GPI, Nov. 13, 2008). The Interior Department estimates offshore Virginia may hold 130 million bbl of oil and 1.14 Tcf of gas. The planned lease sale, if it occurs, would be the first off the Atlantic Seaboard in nearly 30 years.

“We do not hold the key. You in Washington do” to unlock the OCS oil and natural gas resources, Wagner said. By reimposing the moratorium, “we’re…restricting ourselves from our own energy resources.”

As Wagner testified before Congress, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine made public a letter he sent to Salazar calling for a postponement of Lease Sale 220, which is proposed for Virginia’s coast. “Our policies do not support exploration for oil or production of gas or oil, which would be allowed under Lease Sale 220,” Kaine wrote. “I believe that no lease sale should be conducted in the Atlantic until the process that you have outlined for the five-year [leasing] program is complete.”

Salazar earlier this month took steps to considerably stall the process for review of the new five-year offshore leasing plan (2010-2015), which was issued in the final days of the Bush administration (see Daily GPI, Feb. 11). But he indicated at the time that he didn’t think this would affect the lease sale proposed for Virginia under the existing five-year program (2007-2012).

Rohrabacher said he objected to the Obama administration’s decision to prolong by six months the process for reviewing the new leasing plan. “It makes no sense for us to delay developing our energy resources.” But Farr, like Kaine, said he supported the delay. “We need to know more about the oceans and the impact on the oceans. Let’s not just charge ahead.”

Revenues from offshore drilling are needed to help Virginia deal with a $4 billion deficit, Wagner said. The Congressional Research Service estimated that offshore drilling would pump more than $120 billion into the California economy and more than $76 billion into states bordering on the Atlantic Seaboard, reported Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA).

Rohrabacher said there were “enormous untapped” resources offshore California, with conservative estimates at 9 billion bbl of oil and “vast deposits” of natural gas. This represents a value to offshore California of $500 billion, he said, adding, “We surely need new sources of revenue.”

In addition to expanding the OCS, Rohrabacher asked Congress to address the activists and obstructionists who “have made it their job” to block energy projects, including solar projects. Many activists are stuck in the ’60s, he said. And as a result, “things are being written off that are now smart that were [once] stupid.”

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