Nick Snow
Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON, DC, Mar. 16 -- Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) has introduced a bill that would give Gulf Coast states 50% of federal offshore oil and gas revenue from their portions of the Outer Continental Shelf for hurricane protection, including construction of stronger levees and comprehensive coastal restoration.
The Gulf Coast Protection Act would make half of this year's projected $6-8 billion of total federal OCS revenues available to states comprising what she termed the "Energy Coast."
Landrieu said Louisiana represents 25% of US crude oil production and nearly 20% of the country's natural gas output but receives less than 0.1% of royalties that the federal government shares with states.
Onshore producing states share in royalties on production from federal lands. Wyoming is expected to receive $1.3 billion and New Mexico approximately $700 million this year, she said.
Landrieu said her bill would build on $1 billion in funding that she and Louisiana's other US senator, Republican David Vitter, secured in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 for coastal impact assistance over the next 4 years. Using a similar formula that would allocate a portion to each state based on its share of OCS production within 200 miles of its coast, she said Louisiana would receive some 54% of distributed state shares.
Her latest bill follows one that she and Vitter cosponsored with Sens. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to provide Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama a similar share of federal revenues from oil and gas production in the so-called Sale 181 area of the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
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