Nick Snow
Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON, DC, Aug. 3 -- More than a month after passing their own offshore leasing bill, US House of Representatives members said they look forward to a conference after the Senate passed its more limited measure on Aug. 1.
"Both the House and the Senate are now in agreement: America must produce more deep sea energy to provide relief for consumers. The only remaining question is just how much relief will Congress grant," House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo said.
He said he would confer with other House members about how to proceed "after they have heard from their voters about energy prices during August."
Another Resources Committee member was critical of the Senate's approach, however. Rep. John E. Peterson (R-Pa.) said S. 3711 was "limited in scope and modest in design." He added, "Unfortunately, our current energy crisis is neither limited nor modest. It's the product of a failed national energy policy that encourages demand but simultaneously locks away supply—and then remains silent on the question of why we pay more for natural gas than any other country in the world."
Peterson's response reflected the difference between the Senate's bill, which is concentrated on the Gulf of Mexico, and the House's measure, which includes the East and West coasts in addition to the Gulf.
The bills take different approaches to sharing Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing revenues with coastal states. HR 4761 would institute shares for coastal states which allow leasing 100 miles from their shores on an annually increasing scale from 6% in fiscal 2006 to 50% in fiscal 2022. S. 3711 would give Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas a 37.5% share of future OCS revenue off their shores.
Leasing bans
The bills also differ in their treatment of offshore oil and gas leasing bans. S. 3711 would establish a 125-mile buffer off Florida's coast and east of a military mission line through 2022. HR 4761 would prohibit new federal leases within 50 miles of a state's shoreline, but allow leasing 50-100 miles off a state's shore if the governor and legislature request it. States that do this would receive a share of OCS revenues from leases off their coasts.
The House bill also would provide states a means to petition for withdrawal of federally imposed moratoriums and allow the federal government to issue leases limited to gas at a state's request. Both oil and gas leases would be issued under S. 3711 in the so-called Sale 181 area and a region in deeper water immediately south.
The White House Office of Management and Budget gave qualified support to S. 3711 but warned that HR 4761 could have too great a negative budget impact.
"A crisis of this severity can be solved only through serious and decisive action. And though the Senate bill fails to meet that standard in my view, it does represent an important opportunity to move the discussion forward by creating the conditions for a long-term, durable agreement," Peterson said.
He expressed appreciation for Domenici's work "to shepherd this bill through the marshlands of the US Senate," saying, "I remain confident that we can come up with a plan in conference, if given the opportunity, that will protect the needs of coastal states while putting a worthwhile amount of natural gas and oil in the pipeline."
HR 4761's other three principal sponsors—Neil Abercrombie (D-Hi.), Bobby Jindal (R-La.), and Charlie Melancon (D-La.)—said the Senate's passage of its bill represented progress in expanding federal OCS leasing.
"There is still a lot of work to be done, but today coastal states like Louisiana are closer than they have ever been to getting a significant share of the offshore oil and gas revenues we need to finally begin restoring our disintegrating coastline and building a comprehensive hurricane protection system," Melancon said.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
