Members of the 115th Congress introduced bills dealing with oil and gas as their 2-week spring recess approached. The measures basically put them on record for 2017 with their constituents on traditional issues, but their prospects for actually becoming law seemed slim.
Alaska’s two US senators, Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, introduced the Offshore Production and Energizing National Security (OPENS) Alaska Act of 2017 on Apr. 7. It would repeal US Outer Continental Shelf withdrawals made at the end of the Obama administration, provide for lease sales in the Arctic OCS, and ensure Alaska receives a fair share of revenue from oil and gas offshore development, they said.
“After years of regulatory restrictions and burdens imposed by the Obama administration, this bill charts a much better course for responsible energy production in our Beaufort and Chukchi seas that actually reflects the views of the vast majority of Alaskans,” said Murkowski, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
“These areas contain prolific resources that can be safely developed to create jobs, reduce our deficits, keep energy affordable, and strengthen national security,” she said.
Sullivan said, “The Obama administration tried to kill responsible resource development in the Arctic, ignoring the fact that the rush [there] is on. Oil and gas will be developed in the region—whether by our nation or others. It is imperative that exploration and development occur with all of the safeguards required by the US to protect the environment and the people who live in the region.”
US President Barack Obama closed 42,000 sq miles in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas to future oil and gas leasing in December (OGJ Online, Dec. 9, 2016). His action came a day after the state’s congressional delegation sent him a letter asking that he not further limit oil and gas leasing offshore Alaska.
Bill’s provisions
Murkowski and Sullivan said they believe the Trump administration has sufficient authority to revoke the withdrawals, but noted that their bill would set a marker to reflect most Alaskans’ views. It would require a minimum of three lease sales in each of the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Cook Inlet planning areas during any 5-year period, as well as annual lease sales in the 8(g) zone of the Beaufort and Cook Inlet planning areas. The bill also would provide shares of federal oil and gas revenue to the state, coastal communities, and a tribal resilience fund, they said.
Their measure came the same day as reports that US Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke told the National Ocean Industries Association’s annual meeting in Washington, DC, that the White House was preparing an executive order addressing offshore oil and gas. An Interior spokeswoman told OGJ on Apr. 10 that Zinke was alluding to an earlier executive order for departments and agencies to review existing regulations when he mentioned the matter.
A day before Murkowski and Sullivan introduced their bill in the Senate, four US House Democrats reintroduced five bills that they said would protect public health and the environment from risks associated with oil and gas production, including hydraulic fracturing.
Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.) reintroduced her bill that would regulate fracing under the Clean Water Act, from which it currently is exempted, and require public disclosure of chemicals used in the process. Rep. Janice Schakovsky (Ill.) introduced legislation to require baseline water testing near well sites where fracing is planned, along with public disclosure of the results, before permits are approved.
Rep. Matthew Cartwright (Pa.) reintroduced a bill that would require oil and gas producers to obtain permits for activities that increase stormwater runoff at their well sites, and a measure that remove the oil and gas exemption from federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act requirements for the safe handling, transport, and disposal of hazardous waste.
Rep. Jared Polis (Colo.) introduced a measure to require that small levels of emissions from multiple oil and gas sources be aggregated to determine total emissions as they are for other industries. The five bills would have to win Energy and Commerce Committee approval before the entire House could consider them.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].