American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2015 - 42

and Chukchi seas, and Cook Inlet in any
five-year OCS leasing schedule, plus annual lease sales in the 8(g) zone of the
Beaufort Sea and Cook Inlet planning areas.
Cassidy's office says his bill, effective
in 2017, would lift the Eastern Gulf of
Mexico leasing moratorium established by
Congress in 2006 and set to expire in 2022,
and would direct the Department of Interior to hold Eastern GOM lease sales in
2018, '19 and '20, as well as "allow for ongoing lease sales beyond 2022."
According to a summary provided by
the National Ocean Industries Association,
Warner's bill would redefine the South Atlantic Planning Area to include Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, and require DOI to conduct one lease
sale in the area in 2021 and two in 2022.
All three leasing bills contain revenue sharing provisions. Murkowski says
S 1278 would return 15.0 percent of
Alaskan offshore revenues to the state and
its political subdivisions from 2016 to
2026, with the remainder going "to the
Federal Treasury or deficit reduction." After 2026, S 1278 directs 50.0 percent of
Alaskan offshore revenues to the federal
government, 37.5 percent to Alaskan
state and local entities, and 12.5 percent
to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, weatherization, and developing Arctic infrastructure.
Cassidy says S 1276 raises the cap on
existing Gulf of Mexico revenue sharing
for Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and
Alabama from $500 million in 2017 to
$700 million in 2018-25 and to $1 billion
thereafter. It also directs 37.5 percent of
Eastern Gulf of Mexico revenues to eligible Gulf states, including Florida, sends
12.5 percent to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and allocates the remaining 50.0 percent to the U.S. Treasury.
Warner says S 1279 provides for 50.0
percent revenue sharing for participating
Atlantic Coast states.
Attempts to open more of the U.S. OCS
to oil and gas leasing have generated some
Democratic blow-back. On Earth Day,
nine East Coast Democratic senators led
by Bob Menendez of New Jersey, along
with Vermont independent Bernie Sanders,
introduced S 1042, the Clean Ocean and
Safe Tourism (COAST) Anti-Drilling
Act, which would prohibit DOI from issuing any oil or gas leases in the North,
Mid- or South Atlantic Ocean, according
to an announcement from Menendez's office. Representative Frank Pallone, D-N.J.,
introduced a companion bill in the House,
HR 1977, along with 15 co-sponsors.
On May 21, Senator Bill Nelson, D-Fl.,
announced he had filed the Marine Oil
Spill Prevention Act, which would extend
42 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

the Eastern Gulf of Mexico leasing moratorium to 2027. Seven Florida congressmen, led by Democrat Patrick Murphy and
Republican Bill Posey, introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives, according to Murphy's office.

Block Regulations
Other legislative developments revolved around attempts to block Obama
administration regulatory initiatives. The
House of Representatives passed two
bills to stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Environmental
Protection Agency from redefining "waters of the United States (WOTUS)" that
are subject to federal control under the
Clean Water Act. And the House Energy
and Commerce Committee approved a bill
to block EPA's June 2014 rule to limit carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.
The Senate Environment and Public
Works Committee passed a bill to stop
EPA from using "secret science" in rule
makings, and a stand-alone WOTUS bill
was pending in the committee.
An amendment to HR 2028, the FY
2016 Energy and Water Development and
Related Agencies Appropriations Bill,
which passed the House 240-177 on May
1, prohibits any changes to federal jurisdiction under the CWA, according to a
statement from the House Appropriations Committee. Specifically, the bill
states that none of the funds it makes available may be used "to develop, adopt, implement, administer, or enforce any change
to the regulations and guidance in effect
on Oct. 1, 2012, pertaining to the definition of waters under the jurisdiction of the
Federal Water Pollution Control Act."
HR 1732, the Regulatory Integrity
Protection Act of 2015, which was introduced in April by Congressman Bill
Shuster, R-Pa., orders EPA and USACE
to withdraw their March 2014 proposed
definition of WOTUS, and "to consult
state and local governments, along with industries that will be affected before drafting a new rule," according to Shuster's office. HR 1732 passed the House of Representatives 261-155 on May 12.
A similar amendment to the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations bill was
withdrawn before the legislation passed the
Senate Appropriations Committee on
May 21.
However, a stand-alone bill, S 1140, the
Federal Water Quality Protection Act, introduced by Senator John Barrasso, RWy., was pending in the Environment and
Public Works Committee with 30 cosponsors. According to Barrasso, S 1140 orders
EPA and USACE to issue a revised def-

inition of WOTUS "that does not include
things such as isolated ponds, ditches, agriculture water, stormwater, groundwater,
floodwater, municipal water supply systems, wastewater management systems,
and streams without enough flow to carry pollutants to navigable waters."
According to the senator, federal jurisdiction should be limited to:
* Traditional navigable waters and interstate waters;
* Streams identified on maps at the
scale used by EPA to identify potential
sources of drinking water;
* Streams with enough flow to carry
pollutants to a navigable water, based on
a quantifiable and statistically valid measure of flow for that geographic area; and
* Wetlands situated next to a WOTUS
that protect water quality by preventing the
movement of pollutants.
Barrasso, along with Senator David Vitter, R-La., also introduced S 544, the Secret Science Reform Act. The bill, which
passed the Environment and Public Works
Committee on April 28, stipulates that EPA
shall not propose, finalize or disseminate
a covered action unless all the scientific and
technical information supporting that rule
making are specifically identified and
publicly available "in a manner that is sufficient for independent analysis and substantial reproduction of research results,"
according to Barrasso's office.
A companion bill, HR 1030, introduced
by Representative Lamar Smith, R-Tx.,
passed the House 241-175 in March.
Finally, on April 29, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed
HR 2042, the Ratepayer Protection Act of
2015. Introduced by committee Chairman
Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., HR 2042 extends the
compliance date for the mandatory power plant CO2 rule released by EPA last
summer until after all court challenges
have been concluded, according to an Energy Committee announcement. In addition, the bill provides that no state shall be
required to implement a compliance plan
if its governor determines that doing so
would have a significant adverse effect on
retail, commercial or industrial ratepayers,
or the reliability of the state's electric grid.
❒

Coming In July

With production declines as high
as 80 percent in unconventional
plays, the New Technology special
reports spotlight emerging solutions
to rejuvenate production and boost
ultimate recoveries-from singlestage treatments to full-scale refracs.



American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2015

Contents
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