The Offshore Energy and Jobs Act introduces reforms to revive offshore drilling, including a new five-year leasing plan aimed to expand drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific coastal regions.
On May 30, 2013, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) introduced a bill to expand offshore drilling to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts by removing government barriers. To this end, the bill introduces reforms to outer-continental shelf leasing plans, establishes revenue-sharing for coastal states, and reorganizes the Department of Interior’s (DOI) offshore energy agencies. Under the administration’s current five-year plan, approximately 85% of offshore regions are closed to energy development.
The legislation would require a new five-year offshore leasing plan that includes making available at least 50% of known offshore energy reserves bearing an estimated 2.5 billion barrels of oil or 7.5 trillion cubic feet of gas. Apart from conducting new leasing, the administration would hold lease sales that were delayed or cancelled, including areas off the coasts of Virginia, South Carolina, and California. Further, the legislation would facilitate future development in new areas by adding territories under DOI’s resource evaluation.
The bill would establish equitable revenue-sharing for coastal states, allowing Gulf of Mexico states to continue receiving 37.5% revenue from new leases under the Gulf of Mexico Energy Act, and a subsequent phase-in to extend the share to all offshore-energy producing states.
Building on DOI efforts to reorganize its offshore energy agencies, the legislation would implement appropriate reforms to improve accountability, efficiency, and safety standards of offshore drilling operations. The former Minerals Management Service would be replaced with three distinct agencies – Bureau of Ocean Energy, Ocean Energy Safety Service, and Office of Natural Resources Revenue – to manage offshore energy operations.
May 31, 2013 via Energy Solutions Forum
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