Lawsuits Stop Offshore Drilling in Its Tracks

[WillowTree]

By Yanmie Xie--
Oil and gas companies appeared to score an all-out victory over the summer when President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling and congressional Democrats let a moratorium expire soon after. But those who think nothing stands between oil rigs and the outer continental shelf are dead wrong.

"Every lease that has been granted in the last several years has been immediately challenged in the lawsuits � 100 percent," said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.

When the ban was lifted, the federal government was permitted to sell drilling leases three miles off the nation's coastlines, free of state objections.

The Interior Department has already started surveying the water and has drawn up maps for lease sales. So far, the government has collected $8.4 billion from the five-year leasing plan that covers 2007 to 2012. Another round of sales will be held next March.


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How many times did you hear that Pelosi prune and her leftist Democrats who fly all around in their private jets that the oil companies had all the acreage they needed to explore and drill in??? Hundresds of times, It's one of them make yer ears bleed left wing talking points.. Americans are going to catch any breaks when it comes to getting their own energy, you'll have to fart yer way to work. All our money is going to continue pouring into the middle east, while we get poorer and pooer.. Happy days are here again.

 

[waltky]

Offshore drilling moratorium costing jobs...

13,000 Jobs Worth $1.1 Billion in Wages Lost Nationally Since Offshore Drilling Moratorium Imposed
Monday, March 21, 2011 - At least 13,000 jobs have been lost since last summer’s moratorium on offshore oil production, surpassing projected job losses in a 2010 study by thousands, according to the Louisiana State University professor who authored the study.

Joseph Mason, author of “The Economic Cost of a Moratorium on Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration to the Gulf Region,” estimated that the new regional job losses due to the moratorium on offshore oil production in the Gulf region is now 13,000 – up from his original estimate of 8,000. Mason also estimated the national job losses to have increased from 12,000 to 13,000; regional wage losses to be $800 million, up from $500 million; national wage losses to be $1.1 billion, up from $700 million; lost tax revenues on the state and local level to be $155 million, up from $100 million; and lost tax revenues on the national level to be $350 million, up from $200 million.

Mason testified before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Energy and Power last Thursday. In his written statement at the House hearing, he wrote: “Each day, more exploration and development activity in the Gulf is lost. The lost output will not be regained and the lost wages cannot be spent.” He continued: “We knew all along that even the most honorable businessmen could not support their workers without revenue income in the long term. We are now progressing into that long term. As rig workers and other employees directly related to oil and gas development tighten their belts or leave the region, the rest of the region suffers.”

A recent Gallup poll shows that six in 10 Americans favor increasing offshore drilling for oil and gas in U.S. Coastal areas, which is up 50 percent from May 2010. The same poll says 49 percent of Americans are now in favor of opening Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for Oil exploration, up from 43 percent in 2008. Last December, the consulting firm Wood Mackenzie conducted a study that projects that by 2015 associated job losses could reach 125,000 per year. According to the Obama administration statistics, 12,000 jobs have been lost as a result of the moratorium. The statistics come at a time when Democrats are criticizing Republicans for not creating jobs.

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See also:

U.S. Offshore Drilling Czar ‘Not Thoroughly Familiar’ with Billions in Lost Royalties from Offshore Drilling
Monday, March 21, 2011 – The head of the federal agency responsible for overseeing offshore oil drilling could not directly answer questions posed by Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) about billions of dollars in lost revenue from offshore oil and natural gas wells that are not paying royalties to the federal government for operating in U.S. waters.

Michael Bromwich was questioned last week at an appropriations hearing to consider a $358.4-million budget request for the Interior Department's newly created Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), which he heads. “I am not thoroughly familiar with these issues, but hearing you describe it and hearing the magnitude of the dollars, it’s a serious problem, and I will learn more about it and get back to you with fuller answers,” Bromwich said at the March 17 hearing.

According to a 2007 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, offshore leases put in place by the Department of the Interior in 1998 and 1999 did not enforce royalty payments based on production levels and the cost of crude oil. The report estimated that the error could cost the government $10 billion in lost revenues, but one official put the estimate at $15.21 billion, a figure he said his staff had reached after “working closely” with Bromwich. “The estimate that we’re getting – working closely with Director Bromwich and his staff – we have estimates of $15.21 billion,” Gregory Gould, director of the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, said when Moran questioned him about the unpaid royalties.

Gould added that there was “no legal mechanism” at present to change those 1998-99 lease contracts. “So this is going to continue,” Moran said, adding that because oil prices are now over $100 a barrel, taxpayers and not oil companies should reap the benefits. Shortly thereafter, Moran turned to Bromwich, saying, “All right, earn your pay, such as it is, Mr. Bromwich,” and asked him about the royalties. As noted, Bromwich said he was “not thoroughly familiar with these issues.”

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