Amid the Trump administration's Energy Week activities that confirmed several important federal policy changes, a US House member from Louisiana quietly introduced a bill aimed at reforming procedures at an agency normally not associated with oil and gas.
HR 3133 would amend the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to reduce National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) permitting delays that effectively stopped what would have been the first seismic surveys in decades along the Mid-Atlantic US Outer Continental Shelf late in the Obama administration.
NMFS did not act for years on six offshore geophysical contractors' applications for incidental harassment authorizations (IHA) in the region. The process normally takes a few months. NMFS never responded to OGJ's numerous requests for an explanation.
Called the 2017 Streamlining Environmental Approvals (SEA) Act, the bill also tries to address permit approval delays under the MMPA that have hampered groups trying to preserve Louisiana's rapidly deteriorating coastline and interrupted US Naval operations along the Gulf Coast, Republican Mike Johnson said after introducing the measure on June 29.
"These specific regulations impose burdensome, unnecessary barriers to new technological innovations. This is simply unacceptable," Johnson said. The bill attempts to clarify procedures for obtaining IHAs at the US Department of Commerce agency in several ways:
• It would establish a clear decision deadline, and give the Commerce secretary authority to approve a permit if it has not been acted upon within 120 days after it has been deemed complete.
• It would allow certain IHA permits to be extended for more than a year if there has been no substantial change to the marine mammal population after the authorized activity has been under way.
• It would try to eliminate duplications related to the Endangered Species Act by exempting MMPA-covered mammals from additional, less rigorous ESA requirements, Johnson said.
'A much-needed update'
Oil and gas industry associations welcomed the legislation. "It provides a much-needed update to the permitting process under the 45-year-old MMPA," National Ocean Industries Association Pres. Randall B. Luthi said.
"As the energy industry saw with the delays and denials of seismic permits in the Atlantic, it is easy for offshore exploration to be dictated by political whims instead of proven science," Luthi said.
Dustin Van Liew, regulatory and government affairs director at the International Association for Geophysical Contractors, said HR 3133 would provide essential certainty. "By setting reasonable deadlines, it will ensure that the regulatory process will adhere to existing statutory deadlines," he said.
International Association of Drilling Contractors Pres. Jason McFarland said the measure's provisions "will allow the oil and gas industry to move forward with offshore energy exploration while also protecting marine life populations and habitats."
