Posted: 08/03/2006
Senate Takes Baby Steps To Strengthen U.S. Energy Security
Filibuster Threats Prevent More Responsible Action, says NCPA Expert
DALLAS (August 3, 2006) - Stopping far short of a previously passed House bill, the U.S. Senate voted 71-25 this week to direct the Interior Department to begin selling leases for oil and gas development in 8.3 million acres of the east-central Gulf of Mexico - about 100 miles from the nearest land and 125 to 310 miles from Florida beaches. According to an energy policy expert with the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), prospects are dim for a more extensive effort at allowing increased domestic energy production.
"The Senate's effort is better than nothing, but not by much," said NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett. "This is best described as a stumbling baby step towards decreasing U.S. reliance on foreign oil and gas."
According to reports, any bill that goes beyond the 8.3 million acres would run into a filibuster in the Senate, requiring an unlikely 60 votes to overcome. Senate Democrats say they will block any attempt by the House to widen the bill's scope to include some 350 million acres on the Outer Continental Shelf previously passed by the House that are not addressed in the Senate bill.
Lease Sale 181 off Florida collectively holds about 1.26 billion barrels of oil and 5.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. However, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) has estimated that the Outer Continental Shelf contains more than 85 billion barrels of oil, quadruple current U.S. reserves and more than 419 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Of these reserves, between 21 and 41 billion barrels of oil and between 94 and 164 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lie under the East and West Coasts, and in portions of the Gulf of Mexico where production is currently banned.
According to Burnett, these moratoria were put in place due to environmental concerns. Yet technology has improved greatly since the earliest platforms were built. As proof, very little oil was spilled into the Gulf following hurricane's Katrina and Rita. The storms destroyed 111 production platforms - most of them built before new standards were imposed in 1998 - and seriously damaged another 52 platforms and 457 pipelines, yet the MMS has found only six hurricane-related oil spills of at least 1,000 barrels and none of the spills impacted shores or wildlife.
"The Senate has abdicated its responsibility to serve the American public by not following the House's lead and acting decisively to open the vast majority of the OCS to environmentally sensitive oil and gas production," said Burnett.