Download a PDF of her statement here. Watch her floor speech here.

Washington, D.C. – Today, Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) led the fight to defeat a proposal to incentivize states to drill offshore.

The proposal, drafted by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), was intended to promote offshore oil and gas drilling by providing states a larger percentage of federal revenues from offshore drilling and by expanding the number of eligible states. The proposal would have diverted more than $7 billion away from the Federal Treasury.

“This is a terrible, terrible deal for the nation as a whole and the other 41 states who will not receive the revenue,” Sen. Cantwell said. “Please do not blow a $7 billion hole in the Federal Treasury and give it to a few states when these lands and resources belong to all of us. If we want to help our coastal states in some other economic way or some way, let’s discuss that. But blowing a hole of $7 billion in the federal budget and then trying to make it up later on the backs of the rest of our constituents is an unfair deal for the American taxpayer.”

Yesterday, the Senate Democrats announced their leadership team for the next Congress. Sen. Cantwell will remain at the helm of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the 115th Congress as the lead Democrat.

Read her complete statement on the offshore oil revenue sharing proposal here.

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