Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), a long-time critic of expanded oil and natural gas drilling, has overreacted to the Interior Department’s drawing of an administrative line that places the eastern boundary of offshore Louisiana in the natural gas-prone eastern Gulf of Mexico, said spokesmen for the Interior Department and the offshore industry Tuesday.

They disputed a Nelson aide’s claim that an administrative line drawn in the eastern Gulf and through the gas-rich Lease Sale 181 puts Louisiana in a better position to press for exploration and production in the millions of acres of waters that historically have been off-limits due largely to the active efforts of Florida opposing drilling off its coastline. A map of the administrative line drawn by Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) was published in the Federal Register last Tuesday.

“It’s very suspect when they [the Interior Department] draw these lines two weeks before they are to come out with a [draft] five-year leasing plan” for leasing activity on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) during the 2007-2012 period, Bridget Walsh, deputy legislative director for Nelson, said on Monday (see Daily GPI, Jan. 10). It’s “almost certain” now that the agency will open up the entire Lease 181 to drilling in the five-year plan, she contends.

Nelson’s office is “definitely” overreacting to the agency’s drawing of administrative lines off coastal states, countered MMS spokesman Gary Strasburg. “It’s not our intent to have these [lines] be anything other than a convenience for us” to determine “which state we need to talk to” regarding offshore energy projects, he noted.

Strasburg acknowledged, however, that Interior Secretary Gale Norton could rely on the administrative lines in developing her draft five-year leasing plan, which is due to be released later this month. “It would be up to the secretary to determine whether she wants to use the lines in [crafting] her five-year leasing plan. It’s possible for her to do that.”

An energy industry source agreed with Strasburg, noting that Nelson’s office “was probably making more of this than it actually is.”

At this moment, “the import of this [MMS’s action] is unclear,” said Michael Kearns, a spokesman for the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents the offshore industry. MMS “may choose in the future to realign the planning areas to coincide with these [administrative] lines, but that’s unclear” at this time, he noted.

The administrative lines “could theoretically mean something down the road,” especially if coastal states are allowed to share offshore royalties with the federal government, Kearns said.

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