Ehrlich on Washington column, April 10, 2000

MEWS FROM Robert L. Ehrlich, i Ir.fJ Second Congressional District of Maryland \^® /Ш 1 407 York Road, Suite 304 Lutherville, Maryland 21093 EHRLICH ON WASHINGTON By Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. 3 1 5 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Week of April 10, 2000 Preserving Maryland’s History and Environment in an Unusual Way The recent attention being paid to gasoline prices brought to mind an unusual partnership between the federal government and oil and gas companies that has a huge payoff for Maryland. Our state is blessed with great history — from Native American settlements to Colonial history to the opening of the west — and natural resources found no where else in the world. Preserving these precious resources should be a priority for everyone. Where do the oil and gas companies come into the picture? They pay the federal government almost $3 billion each year for the rights to drill for oil and natural gas on federal lands, including many offshore oil fields. Recently, I co-sponsored a bill in the Congress, H.R. 701, "The Conservation and Reinvestment Act" (CARA), introduced by Rep. Don Young (R-AK) which would permanently dedicate these lease payments to environmental and historic preservation efforts. If CARA is passed, Maryland will receive about $37 million each year that can be used for a wide variety of purposes, for example: the preservation of historic buildings, the acquisition of Civil War Battlefields, Chesapeake Bay cleanup, and the restoration of shorelines, streams and rivers. It may also be used for building and preserving wildlife habitats, building parks, ballfields and playgrounds or protecting family farms from suburban strip malls. I am a big supporter of this CARA legislation. First, I find it appropriate that we dedicate the payments made by the oil and gas companies for drilling on federal lands exclusively to historic and environmental preservation. While the companies are conscientious about their work and their impact on the environment is minimal, CARA is a way of using nonrenewable resources like gas and oil to help renewable resources like the Chesapeake Bay. CARA also makes sense because it allows the states and local cities to determine how best to use the money instead of federal government bureaucrats in Washington. Because the money can be used for such a wide variety of preservation and recreational purposes, the people closest to the communities should decide exactly how it should be spent.