At 1:23 am this morning, Virginia’s State Senate voted 16-18 against Delegate Saxman’s Offshore Drilling Bill (HB6006). It was one of the last votes before they adjourned sine die at approximately 1:40am this morning.

The bill did, however, pass through the Virginia House of Delegates on a 56-39 vote early evening yesterday. Perhaps most stirring in the House floor debate were remarks from Virginia Beach’s own Delegate Joe Bouchard. Read his speech on the flip.

The Impact of Offshore Drilling on the Virginia Capes Operating Area
Floor Speech on HB 6006
Delegate Joe Bouchard
July 9, 2008

Mr. Speaker,

The United States is at war; fighting the war on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and other battlegrounds across the broad oceans that separate our nation from the strife that afflicts many other areas of the world. As we speak, a carrier battle group is being shifted from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean to provide additional air power for our troops fighting a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.

I spent most of my adult life on storm-tossed warships patrolling the hostile seas off the coasts of our adversaries. Before we sailed in harm’s way, we conducted intensive combat training in training ranges off the coast of the United States. Those training ranges are instrumented for accurate assessment of combat readiness, and clearly marked on navigation charts to prevent civilian vessels and aircraft from being endangered by Navy training.

One of those critically important training ranges is located off the coast of Virginia. It is called the Virginia Capes Operating Area and is being used every day to sharpen the combat skills of US forces fighting the war on terror.

The Virginia Capes Operating Area is threatened. Ironically, it is not threatened by our terrorist enemies, it is threatened by our search for transportation revenue. The bill before us would earmark royalties from oil and gas drilling off the Coast of Virginia for the Transportation Trust Fund. But those revenues come with severe consequences for the Navy and Air Force units based in Virginia whose combat readiness depends on unencumbered use of the Virginia Capes Operating Area.

Virginia’s offshore oil and gas drilling area cuts through the heart of the Virginia Capes Operating Area. Almost all of the offshore area allocated to Virginia by the Federal Government lies within the Virginia Capes Operating Area. 72% of the larger area desired by Virginia lies within the Virginia Capes Operating Area. Clearly, Virginia cannot gain significant royalties from offshore oil and gas without extensive drilling in the Virginia Capes Operating Area.

The Navy has stated clearly and unequivocally that drilling for oil and gas in the Virginia Capes Operating Area is incompatible with the combat training conducted there. The Navy, Air Force and Department of Defense consistently have opposed opening offshore training ranges for oil and gas drilling. We need to take heed of their opposition to drilling in the Virginia Capes Operating Area. We have many other revenues sources from which to finance transportation. We do not need to endanger US combat forces to solve our transportation problems. I ask all of my esteemed colleagues to stand by our men and women in uniform and vote against this bill.

And that is just one of Twelve Reasons Why Offshore Drilling is Wrong for Virginia.