Sen. Vitter: GoM Lease Sale Revenue Should Be Higher

Louisiana Senator GoM Lease Sale Revenue Should Be Higher

U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-La.) made the following statement after the U.S. Department of Interior’s offshore lease sale for the Western Gulf of Mexico, noting that the revenue levels for offshore leasing are far below what it could be.

“Today’s lease sale was only the fourth since the 2010 drilling moratorium. The five-year lease sale plan that was withdrawn by the Obama administration would have provided at least 10 lease sales over the same period,” said the senator in a press release.

 “There is no disputing the fact that our nation’s domestic energy production on federal lands is far lower than what was projected before this administration took office, and is trending in the exact opposite direction of the rapid growth we’re seeing on private and state land,” Vitter said. “Oil and gas production on federal property is a process that requires leasing, permitting, exploring, more permitting, and then hopefully production. At the leasing and production stages, large sums of money come into the federal Treasury, which is all the more reason for the Administration to increase and expand their lease sales.”

Prior to the administration’s first offshore drilling lease sale, more than a year after the 2010 moratorium, Vitter highlighted the total drop-off in federal revenue coming in due to the lack of lease sales – from $10 billion in FY2008 to $0 to that point in 2011. That number has only slightly increased, the statement says.

According to the statement issued on the senator’s website, Vitter has legislation that would force the Interior Department to go back to the previous five-year leasing plan that would open up nearly all of the outer continental shelf for lease sales.

“The administration’s current offshore plan for the next five years keeps 85 percent of offshore areas closed to new American energy production,” says the statement.

[mappress]
August 29, 2013