471 



sale. If there is no indication or very little, you should not be offer- 

 ing it, which I think is happening now with the Department's 

 areawide lease sales. 



Mr. D' Amours. Mr. Foy? 



Mr. Foy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Just one point in particular. It seems to me one of the issues to 

 look at in the potential effects of exploration and the problems we 

 are encountering with anticipating what the effects are going to be 

 and how to make a decision is the growth in the size of these re- 

 lease sales. 



We all agree that, based on the eight exploratory holes that were 

 drilled on Georges Bank, perhaps there was not much damage. If 

 there had been 63 holes drilled in each of the 63 leases, perhaps 

 there would have been more damage. If there had been 200 holes 

 drilled in the 200 leases that would have been sold in sale 52 there 

 might have been a great deal more damage still. If there are 2,000 

 holes drilled in the next sale, there might be a tremendous amount 

 of damage. 



The problem we are facing here is that the Department of the 

 Interior apparently has no limit to its appetite to lease for explora- 

 tion. And instead of doing, as my testimony quotes, one of their 

 comments that says we will go out and start small and find out 

 what is there and what the problems are, and then decide where to 

 go to look for more oil — the notion of starting small has gone out 

 the window apparently sometime recently. 



We are not starting small. We are not even close. These are gi- 

 gantic sales. 



Our ability to extrapolate from a very small scientific under- 

 standing of the effects of 8 exploratory holes to a sale that might 

 include 2,000 leases, we just simply cannot do that. And the De- 

 partment's response is just as the chairman says — let us go out and 

 look and see what is there. And essentially it is a blunderbuss leas- 

 ing approach and a heap of faith — we will not cause harm. 



I do not think that there is any basis, based on any of the infor- 

 mation we have to date, that a sale of the magnitude we are talk- 

 ing about here can be conducted without harming that resource. 

 There is no reason for reaching that conclusion. 



So one of the possible constraints that Congress might consider 

 would be a limit on the accepted size of leasing in an area of the 

 value of Georges Bank. Don't allow a 2,000 lease sale, don't allow 

 even a 200 lease sale. Limit it so that we can be sure when we 

 make a balance, saying exploration won't cause harm, we are 

 basing that on the notion we are going to have 8 exploratory holes 

 and not a potential for an open-ended number of holes. 



Mr. D' Amours. You think the size of lease sale 42, Mr. Foy, 

 would be a reasonable size to consider as a maximum? 



Mr. FoY. Well, perhaps. Although I must say I am left with the 

 notion that the resources estimates are worth something, that Inte- 

 rior's attempt to try to put distance between themselves and the 

 resource estimates raises some serious questions in my mind as to 

 their good faith. 



I think the resource estimates are worth something. They are, re- 

 member, also based on the results of sale 42. And my conclusion is 



