Killing scores of people and knocking out power water and communications. Residents are still recovering today. Id also caused multiple offshore oil spills. Active pipelines and platforms where the source of some spills, while a banded ones with no identifiable we wear this earths of others. I attributed identified from space, following a weather event since the government started tracking leaks and spills using satellites almost a decade ago. We shouldnt view this as a oneoff event or a freak accident. There are thousands of oil and gas structures in the gulf, including riggs, platforms wells, power cables and thousands and thousands of miles of pipeline. All posing environmental and safety risks. Some of this infrastructure is active and some is abandoned. But it is all aging in a growing concern for communities and wildlife impacted by spills, and also taxpayers that may be forced to pay for its eventual removal. As Climate Change super charges storms in the gulf, more powerful winds, waves, currents and mudslides will be a growing threat, capable of moving pipelines and destroying structures. Stronger federal regulations of this offshore infrastructure is essential to reduce future spills and other impacts, and to protect taxpayers from shouldering the cleanup cost. This isnt just a huge and growing problem in the gulf of mexico, as californians have recently experienced, there is also a crisis in the pacific. On october one, residents around Huntington Beach and Newport Beach reported oily smells and the epa National Response center received reports of an unknown sheen on the Water Surface the coast guard confirmed a spill the next day, and since then, local state and federal officials and volunteers had organized a robust response to contain and clean up the oil spill. And to begin to investigate the causes. Over the past two weeks, we have learned considerable details about the sam peak asha hype line, amplified energies response and the timeline of events that led to the rupture. It appears that months ago, a ships anchor hooked and dragged the pipeline over 100 feet, damaging it and causing the slash that led to the release of tens of thousands of gallons of oil. But all of this bags several questions, and raises issues for us. Did the pipeline move or become unsecure from the sea floor . Creating a hazard for commercial specials . Was the pipeline inspected correctly in recent years, as required . And were there indications of issues, and was there a delay between when the alarm went off and when amplified initiated an Emergency Response plan . These and many other questions must be answered. It will take time, but in the interim, we need to learn more about the immediate and long term impacts of the spill. There are many. As we know, beaches and fishing spots have been closed, although recently, some have been done to reopen. Local businesses, defenders, restaurants see customers vanish. Wetlands that serve as a refuge for other wildlife and birds have been in you dated with oil and par balls. As part of the spill investigation, we need to hear from residents and the surrounding communities on the ground. That is precisely why congresswoman, porter and i are having a joint hearing this coming monday. In Southern California. The response to the spill will continue and conditions will eventually improve, and hopefully have started, but its critical that we dont simply move on and wait for the next accident to occur. Offshore oil and Gas Infrastructure, both in the gulf and the pacific is a ticking time bomb. The california spell is part of a much larger disaster in the making. Congress has known that offshore infrastructure poses risks to the environment and taxpayers for years. 2015, the Government Accountability office alerted us that taxpayers are on the hook for billions of dollars in offshore decommissioning costs. And in april, the gao released a scathing report, detailing the extensive failures of the interior Department Oversight of offshore pipelines in the gulf of mexico. The recent offshore spill need to be a wake up call for congress, because without stronger regulations things will get worse in coastal communities. Coastal communities and taxpayers will pay a steeper and steeper price. With that, i look forward to the testimony of witnesses, and i now recognize the Ranking Member stauber for his opening remarks. Welcome, representative stauber. Thank you, chairman americans and other innocence died enough ghana stan due to a poorly planned extradition. The legal immigrants flooding our borders because every democrat during their president ial election put their hand in the air when asked if they would support health care for all illegals. The department of justice targeting parents would have the audacity to disagree with elected officials in the committees. The ballooning inflation, weakening supply chains, americans aim more for less. Every single day is more expensive than the prior day. Most pertinent to the subcommittee, is joe bidens self imposed Energy Crisis. Fortunately, the Carter Administration and gas shortages that hurt American Families something that my children arent familiar with. Unfortunately, joe biden seems hellbent on creating his own Energy Crisis to rival that of president carters. Americas children will have to look through a similar if not worse state stagnating economy. On day one of this administration, within five hours of his inauguration, joe biden elected to halt construction of the keystone xl pipeline. Shortly thereafter, joe biden issued and unlawful ban on oil and Gas Development. Therefore, Energy Prices were not are going up now. This is simple supply and demand. It is not that hard to comprehend. After taking months to realize his mistake, joe biden dispatched his lieutenant, minnesota native and National Security adviser, Jake Sullivan, to bake opec to pump more oil. This was back in august. Thats right, joe biden does not believe our workforce is good enough to produce energy for our citizens, but he believes oh pack is. Believe it or not, mister chair, opec recently informed biden and our nation that their member countries that include saudi arabia, venezuela, russia and other foreign adversaries will not pump more oil to cover for bidens mistakes wet is he doing . He finally started to dialogue with folks from the oil and gas sector to discuss how they can help lower gas prices. Although we cant be clear on what exactly was discussed, i can certainly provide a summary of things that will help keep Energy Prices down. Issue onshore and offshore lease sales, reinstate the president ial permit for the keystone xl pipeline, renew our commitment to exporting American Energy instead of importing foreign energy. Reform a broken permitting process, and stop burdening domestic producers. I stand ready, enablement or tear, for President Biden to discuss with congress the solutions, to this selfimposed crisis. Just a the, word we will send a joint letter asking President Biden to withdraw his condition of trumps knee for regulations or to end the mass program. Meanwhile, we will not find disagreement from me that we need to protect our environment. There is not a single republican here that is not a conservationist. We believe in funding our National Parks and public lands, the Great American outdoors act for example. It is investing through offshore and gas revenues. We believe in robust industries passing sportsmen and sportswoman along to our children. The offshore infrastructure person provides robust habitats. We believe that we need to cold polluters accountable. We have worked closely with industry to continually and put the Government Accountability office removes offshore and gas from its high risk list, due to strides made in safety. However we draw a hard line on vilifying an entire industry, that includes high pay hard working americans. And allows you to put affordable gasoline into your vehicles. For todays hearing, i recognize that many will use the recent events in california to argue for outright nickel and diming of folks out of an industry or a job. I know my republican colleagues and i eagerly await more information. So far, we know that the Associated Press informed by the u. S. Coast guard reported that an anchor being dragged is the most likely cause of this moment. We also know that bidens bottleneck is site strangling supply chains and forcing these ships to anchor for too long. Instead, i know my democrat colleagues today will continue to speculate, they will ask their witnesses joining us today for their opinion about why the evil oil and gas sector is to blame . Dancing around the fact that policies proposed by this very body will only make this crisis worse. In closing, i do look forward to a constructive dialogue. I look forward to pressing our witnesses on how we can escape another and selfimposed crisis, with responsible policy making in our energy sector. Mister chair, i yield back. Thank you. Thank you Ranking Member, stauber. I will now introduce todays witnesses. Doctor donald f. Boesch is a professor of marine science and the president emeritus of the university of Maryland Center for environmental science. Dr. Boesch is also a former member of the National Commission on the Bp Deepwater Horizon Oil spill, and offshore drilling. Robert schuwerk is the north american executive director of the carbon tracker initiative. Jackie savitz is the chief policy officer for north america at oceania. And doctor gregg stunz is the indepth chair for fisheries and ocean health at the Heart Research institute for the gulf of mexico studies. Let me remind the witnesses that under our Committee Rules, they must limit their oral statements to five minutes, but that their entire statements will appear in the hearing record. When you begin, the timer will begin, and it will turn orange when you have one minute remaining. I recommend that members and witnesses joining remotely use, quote, stage view, so that they may pin the timer on their screen. After your testimonys complete, please remember to mute yourself to avoid any inadvertent background noise. I will allow the entire panel to testify before questioning the witnesses. The chair now recognizes dr. Boesch for five minutes. Thank you very much, chair lowenthal and Ranking Member stauber. From the time i was first conducting research on environmental effects of offshore oil and gas in the gulf of mexico back in the 19 80s, until today, exploration, production, and transportation in the federally controlled outer Continental Shelf has shifted quite dramatically. Oil and Gas Production from wells in less than 1000 feet of water declined as fields discovered in the 80s, and even earlier, were depleted. Crude Oil Production in these relatively Shallow Waters declined by over 90 , both in the gulf and off of Southern California. Natural Gas Production in the o c s, which mainly came from the Shallow Water wells, declined by 80 . Offshore fossil Energy Production is now dominated in the deep water of the gulf of mexico, up to 7500 feet deep. Deepwater production grew by 38 just over the last ten years since the deepwater horizon disaster. During these last ten years, inland Domestic Production of oil and gas through hydro fracturing has greatly expanded. In fact, since the lifting of the crude Oil Export Ban in 2016, last year there was 78 more crude oil exported from golf terminals, exported overseas, then actually produced in the u. S. Ocs, and three times as much natural gas exported then produced offshore. So the depletion of Shallow Water oil and Gas Resources has left the legacy of active, but quite old infrastructure, Still Producing marginal but declining resources. Im so sorry. Can you hear me . Ive lost my web x. Doctor boesch, we can hear you very well. Okay. So i dont see the timer. I lost that on my screen. So i will just continue. Please tell me when im done. You have [inaudible] okay, the depletion of Shallow Water gas has left this legacy of old wells and declining resources, and the infrastructure this requires, decommissioning and removal. Much of this infrastructure was not is not operated by the original leaseholders, but by Smaller Companies with lesser assets and technical and operational capacity. These circumstances present substantial challenges Going Forward for ensuring safe operations, reliably ceiling wells and decommissioning unused platforms. Off california theres 23 platforms in federal waters, eight of which are soon facing decommissioning. The gulf, on the other hand, theres 1862 platforms. And about 1000 of them will probably be decommissioned within this decade. While leaving the platform sub structures in the ocean, through our reach to reprogram, can enhance the productivity of certain species, the nation lacks a strategy for platform decommissioning that takes into account the scale of the challenge and comprehensively considers the consequences for ecosystems, resources, and the long term faith and impact of material left offshore. Of the wells drilled in the ocs, 59 of them have been permanently or temporarily abandoned. The rest will be at some point. One study estimates that methane loss rate of 2. 9 from the gulf ocs, which is equal to the average u. S. Loss rate through the entire natural cycle of natural gas supply chain. According to the gao, as you pointed out, there are 8600 miles of active pipelines in federal waters of the gulf, and 18,000 miles of abandon pipelines. The gao filed that we lack a robust process for inquiring a safety risk. Also monitoring the long term fate of these pipelines. Myriad acted and abandon pipelines are limiting for example the restoration of east [inaudible] island in louisiana, because of the number of pipelines underlying that island, as well as the use of offshore sand [inaudible] for coastal restoration. The u. S. Is not alone in facing this predicament of Holding Corporations rather than taxpayers responsible for the cost of decommissioning. This august, the Australian Parliament passed legislation tightening decommissioning liabilities and imposing a levy on all offshore oil and Gas Producers to cover the cost of decommissioning abandoned operated by liquidated companies. It recent rates of production, oil and gas, golfs crude oil reserves will be exhausted in only six or seven years. Thats the proven reserves. Even with the undiscovered and economically Recoverable Oil that bomb estimates in the central and western gulf, we would run out of oil about mid century. So unless some miracle allows us to capture all of the Greenhouse Gases that would be released, we really can do that and achievements or omissions. Whether it be by resource depletion, governmental or corporate policy, or investor and stockholder decisions, off shore oil and Gas Production is likely to see a steep decline. So the Greenhouse Gas emissions pathway that we follow and how we deal with the legacy and remaining infrastructure, will both play out over the next decade or two. The nation sorely needs a smart strategy for this endgame. When that both limits climate and maintains deleterious impacts and the risk of the residual infrastructure. In my opinion, their strategy must be environmentally sustainable. Socially and economically effective for the people of the region. And protect taxpayers from bearing the costs of remediation. Thank you. Thank you, doctor boesch. The chair now recognizes dr. Stunz. I hope im pronouncing it correctly. We recognize you for five minutes. Yes, that is correct. Good afternoon, and good morning for some folks. Chairman lowenthal, Ranking Member stauber, and members of the subcommittee, while oil spills are certainly major concern, i appear before you to discuss some of the positive aspects of oil and Gas Infrastructure. As they relate to marine life. In recent scientific discoveries with Artificial Reef Program in the gulf of mexico, and more importantly how they can facilitate some of the decommissioning issues we have faced in a safe manner. My name is gregg stunz, and im regions professor of Marine Biology and endowed chair for fisheries and ocean health at the Heart Research institute at texas a m university in corpus christi. I direct the center for sport fish science and conservation, wh