Rep. Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, soon will introduce a comprehensive federal energy lands bill that would aim to facilitate offshore and onshore oil and gas development by easing federal permitting responsibilities and giving more authority to states.
“America’s shale revolution ushered in an era of energy leadership and innovation. As state and private lands benefited from greater investment and development, misguided federal policies prevented our vast federal estate from experiencing the same fortune,” the Utah Republican said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“Despite abundant undiscovered resources, our federal lands and waters have been held hostage by Washington bureaucracy,” Bishop added. “This comprehensive overhaul of upstream energy policy creates the regulatory certainty that is needed to spur economic investment on federal lands. With these reforms, we can harness the full potential of our domestic resources, increase revenues to federal and state governments and build a foundation of energy strength at home and abroad.”
The bill, expected to be considered by the House in the coming weeks, would overhaul existing regulatory frameworks for energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf and federally-owned onshore land.
The Outer Continental Shelf is the submerged offshore area between a continent and the deep ocean. America’s shelf encompasses 1.76 billion acres.
The onshore section of the legislation would allow states to seek approval from the Interior Department to take over federal permitting and regulatory responsibilities for crude oil and natural gas development on public lands within their borders.
Bishop’s office says handing regulatory power to states would speed approvals of permits.
His staff says the Bureau of Land Management issued drilling permit applications in an average of 257 days in 2016. By contrast, state agencies issued permits in just 30 days.
The offshore section of the legislation would increase access to the Outer Continental Shelf and create a revenue-sharing process for coastal states.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimates that 89.9 billion barrels of oil and 327.5 trillion cubic feet of gas exist on the shelf.
The Obama administration’s National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2017-2022 excluded 94 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf from oil and gas leasing, Bishop’s office said.
The Trump administration in June submitted for public comment its own five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing. But it said the old program would continue to be followed until the new program is finalized.
Environmentalists and many Democrats say it’s too hazardous and expensive to drill in the Outer Continental Shelf.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, possibly the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, occurred there.
