Amid contentious debate over the markup of Rep. Julia Brownley’s (D-Calif.) H.R. 2643, which would assess an annual fee on oil and gas pipeline owners of $1,000 per mile in shallow water and $10,000 per mile in deep water, the House Committee on Natural Resources approved an amendment to the measure offered by Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) that recognized the value of old pipeline and drilling infrastructure as reef fish habitat—beginning with an impassioned speech from Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Ala.), who introduced it on Graves’s behalf.
“Here in the Gulf, which I’ve grown up fishing the Gulf, these pipelines and these offshore rigs are huge in our recreational fishing,” Carl said.
