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Oil-and-gas lobby sees 'early breakthrough' for offshore royalty bill
The oil-and-gas industry’s top lobbyist said a discussed offshore energy revenue-sharing bill could be primed for an “early breakthrough” in the Senate.
“I’m optimistic there might be potential there to move some stuff early. And then it begins to set a new framework for common ground for all energy policy,” American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard told reporters at a Wednesday event hosted by the U.S. Energy Association.
Some senators want to push a bill that would give royalties to Gulf states for oil and gas drilled off their shores.
New Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has said he wants to work on a revenue-sharing bill. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the committee’s ranking member, is working on language for such legislation.
“As representing two coastal states, they’ll have a little different view of that than where Sen. Bingaman was,” Gerard said of Wyden and Murkowski.
Bingaman proved a roadblock to an offshore royalty bill Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) floated last Congress.
Landrieu’s bill, which never made it out of committee, would have removed a $500 million cap on royalties awarded to Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Those states also could have begun collecting the funds in 2015, rather than 2017.
Bingaman argued all those royalties should go to the federal government, rather than be divvied up among the four Gulf states.
With Wyden on board, an offshore royalty bill might also include provisions for renewable energy projects, such as wind. That could appease the committee’s coastal Democrats, and the Obama administration has already begun leasing federal offshore wind projects on the East Coast.
Landrieu included some renewable energy language at the last minute to an offshore royalty bill last Congress. Her staff indicated Wyden agreed with the direction, but that it required more work.
