Report From Congress

REPORT FROM CONGRESS

WICKER: MISS. WILL REAP BENEFITS FROM INCREASED DRILLING IN GULF

A headline and story in the Washington Post last week said, "Gulf States Hit Paydirt Offshore." This was in response to passage of legislation to open eight million acres on the outer continental shelf (OCS) in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas exploration. The bill will indeed generate millions in new revenues to Mississippi and advance efforts to reduce our country's dependency on foreign energy sources.

The action Congress took in the closing days of the session lifted the moratorium on offshore drilling that has been in place for more than a quarter-century. The increased production in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to bring in 1.6 billion barrels of oil and 5.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas over the next several years.

MISS. WILL GET ROYALTIES

These provisions will also result in an infusion of revenues to the Mississippi treasury. Along with the three other Gulf energy-producing states of Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas, we will get 37.5 percent of the revenues from all new oil and natural gas drilling leases executed off the Mississippi shoreline.

Including the OCS provisions in legislation at the end of this session and getting them enacted into law is a victory in the battle for energy self-sufficiency as well as a boost for states in our region. Members of Congress from the Gulf states have been working on the issue throughout this session. Both the House and Senate passed bills to lift the moratorium on OCS exploration. A consensus could not be reached to advance the wide-ranging House version in the short time left in the session. The measure we enacted mirrors the more limited Senate version.

HOUSE VERSION MORE FAR-REACHING

I was a strong advocate for the House bill, which would have opened more than 350 million acres to oil and natural gas exploration along the OCS all around the country. States would have received up to 50 percent of new and existing lease royalties. The U.S. Minerals Management Service says there could be 76 billion barrels of oil and 400 trillion cubic feet of natural gas within the boundaries of the OCS. The bill gave states the option to limit drilling within 100 miles of their coastlines.

The broader bill was opposed by environmentalists who have argued that oil and gas exploration damages wetlands, poses a risk of oil spills, and threatens other sensitive marine and coastal resources. The fact that the bill might encourage additional oil and gas production along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts is seen as a negative by environmentalists and a plus by supporters of increased domestic production. Gulf oil rigs withstood hurricanes Rita and Katrina without incident, reinforcing the point that today's state-of-the-art drilling techniques and safety procedures do not represent a threat to the environment.

OCS HOLDS VAST RESOURCES

I hope we can revisit this issue with the goal of opening more areas on the OCS for exploration when the new Congress reconvenes in January. It makes no sense to ignore these vast energy resources in the discussion of how to our country can become more energy independent. Senator Mary Landrieu, my Democratic colleague from Louisiana, made a good point in debate on this issue last week. She said, "It is not good to stick your head in the sand and pretend we don't need oil and gas."

http://www.house.gov/wicker/gulf.htm