WASHINGTON, DC– Representative George Miller (D-CA) today blasted a Republican bill to overturn a longstanding and bi-partisan ban on oil and gas drilling off the coasts of California, Florida and other states. (To see Miller on the House Floor, click to see a video or text.)

“This bill takes America in the wrong direction, the same wrong direction that has brought us dramatic prices at the pump, a lack of innovation and energy independence, and a lack of fiscal responsibility,” said Miller, the former chairman of the House Resources Committee. “We should continue to protect our coastal communities from oil and gas drilling, because the coastlines are the economic lifeblood of so many of our states.

“We need a new direction for America, one that is rooted in job-creating innovative technologies that reduce the consumption of oil and gas through efficiency and conservation,” Miller added.

Miller also said the bill would cost taxpayers. He noted that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has determined that the bill authorizes $18 billion in new mandatory spending over the next decade, and according to CBO’s formulas, the spending will only escalate after that.

“We need a new direction when it comes to fiscal responsibility. This bill specifically waives all the rules that protect taxpayers from increased deficit spending. It does so because the bill would increase the federal debt. And yet this bill is being brought to you by the same people who just last week begged – literally begged – for the line item veto so that the president would allegedly stop this Congress from more reckless spending.

“But President Bush has said he opposes this offshore oil and gas bill because it would negatively impact the federal debt. So, the same people who begged for the line item veto last week because they could not be trusted to control their own spending are today rejecting the President’s warnings that this OCS bill will increase the deficit.

“America is the most innovative country in the world, but when it comes to leading America in a new direction on energy this Congress looks more like the Flintstones than the firebrand that we know we can be. We can energize America, we can develop new technologies that create good jobs here at home, and we can help consumers manage their energy costs. This Congress clearly has no interest in doing that.”

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