Posted on 03/07/2009 6:22:33 PM PST by thackney
Fifteen US House Republicans asked US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in a Mar. 5 letter not to delay a Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale that is scheduled for Mar. 18.
"Later this month, the Department of the Interior will conduct a lease sale in what is believed to be one of America's best untapped areas, the 181 South Area of the Gulf of Mexico," said Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), ranking minority member of the House Natural Resources Committee. "Today, I lead a number of my colleagues in sending a letter to Secretary Salazar stressing the importance of moving forward with this critical lease sale."
In his opening statement at a Mar. 5 hearing by the committee's Energy and Mineral Resources subcommittee on energy outlooks and the role of federal onshore and offshore resources in meeting future energy demand, Hastings said that Salazar's Feb. 4 cancellation of successful leases from a December lease sale in Utah, his Feb. 10 announcement that he would delay development of a 5-year Outer Continental Shelf plan begun last summer, and his Feb. 25 withdrawal of a Jan. 14 oil shale lease solicitation "show a clear trend against oil and gas development and job creation."
Hastings said, "My colleagues and I are concerned that should the department act to delay [Lease Sale 208], it will further establish a dangerous trend of blocking new American-made energy and the creation of new American jobs. Additionally, a delay of this sale would throw obstacles in the way of providing American oil and gas that the [US] Energy Information Administration says the nation will need well past 2030 and also discourage energy companies from pursuing new opportunities in our country," Hastings maintained.
The letter, which also was signed by Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), the ranking minority member of the subcommittee, and 13 other House Republicans, said that the sale "may bring in billions of dollars to the US Treasury, open an entirely new frontier of the Gulf for oil development, and save and create thousands of jobs."
Revenue from this initial leasing in the gulf's 181 South Area will be shared with Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, thereby helping the states deal with the current economic downturn, it continued. The US Minerals Management Service's own estimates say that this lease sale could result in production of 800 million to 1.3 billion bbl of oil and 3.3-5.4 tcf of natural gas, "resources that are critically needed by American consumers and which will help us offset our future energy needs," the letter said.
Not proceeding with this lease sale on schedule could threaten not only future leasing in that part of the gulf but also the entire OCS program, it warned.
"Preparation for a lease sale as large as [Sale 208] requires a massive commitment of human and financial capital by dozens of companies. If these companies no longer trust that the government will hold the lease sales that it announces, many will no longer bid or they will reduce their bids, resulting in lower government receipts and less energy produced," the 15 House Republicans told Salazar in their letter.
What self-respecting oil company would bid on these leases after Obama and friends threatened to nationalize them? If it were me, I would tell Obama I can get a better deal, with less risk, in Cuba or Venezuela.
Something almost no one is talking about is the revenue that is lost due to the whacko-left-wing-D@mocrat-earth-worshipper ban on OCS & ANWR oil & gas leasing & development. I ran some numbers last year, and leasing/producing those areas could generate enough money (over the life of production) to pay for the entire 'TARP' bank bailout. And that's not even considering the economic benefits from the associated jobs, etc. But the D@mocrats would rather tax us, instead...
Salazar, and other western state democrats, voted for passage of the bill on the premise that drilling there would relieve the need to drill in the western states
They can try all they like but I don’t think Ken “not even at $10 a gallon gas” Salazar will budge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0FcNNeuf0E
As of 2003, $150 billion in revenue had been generated from the OCS, and a sizable chunk of that was distributed to the states.
If you look at total OCS reserve & resource estimates (which in my experience tend to be conservative); bonus bids for leases with the best prospects (which tend to be significantly higher than those for many leases in areas where the politicians have actually authorized leasing); and oil & gas price trends (last year being a notable high); then it becomes apparent that potential income from OCS oil & gas leasing & development exceeds many hundreds of billions of dollars. The numbers I ran last year were based on the then current (high) oil prices. Absolutely nothing the current administration has proposed (quite the opposite, actually) suggests that we will not revisit those same price levels...
Look up the “No Cost Stimulus Act of 2009” for some relevant info...
Do a google search of “50 Years on the Outer Continental Shelf”
I'm guessing that might include the 20 years a spent 'there' professionally...
(Sorry about the typo - long day... ;>)
By way of reference - when the federal government actually allowed the best areas of the OCS to be leased (way back in the 'dark ages,' when Mr. Reagan was President), a consortium of companies bid almost half that entire lease sale total, for a single ~9 square mile lease (see Appendix G, lease OCS-P 0450, $333,596,200.00 bonus bid). And that was almost 30 years ago.
The situation is exactly analogous to the federal government telling American farmers that the best farm land in the country is off-limits due to 'environmental considerations,' and forcing them to move their operations to the Mojave Desert. Some of them would give it a shot. But the risk would be extremely high, the productivity would be extremely low, and the price they would be willing to pay for the desert land would be 'rock-bottom.' That's exactly what you're seeing in our current 'politically correct' offshore oil & gas lease sales...
(Oh, and keep in mind, every penny the federal government refuses to actually earn from offshore lease sales, and from offshore oil & gas royalties, they will pry out of your wallet, at gun point, via taxation. Congratulations! ;>)
There are 3 articles at the Chronicle on today's sale, if you want better info.
How many $300,000,000 plus leases were included in "last years?"
Just wondering - in case I might actually need "better info"...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.