An independent producer group Monday called on the House to approve a $27.5 billion Interior Department-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spending bill for fiscal year (FY) 2012 that is pro-oil and natural gas.

The appropriations bill (HR 2584), which is being debated on the House floor, provides additional resources for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement to hire new inspectors for offshore energy production and to increase permitting and leasing activities in the Gulf of Mexico, wrote Barry Russell, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), in a letter Monday to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

“Independent oil and natural gas producers operating in offshore areas have faced a difficult challenge in securing the proper permits and leasing approvals since the Deepwater Horizon [explosion] occurred last April,” he said.

The IPAA also backs Republican-led efforts to block an administrative plan to raise onshore and offshore permitting and leasing fees. President Obama proposed raising onshore and offshore fees by nearly $100 million. “IPAA’s members are small business operators that on average employ only 11 workers. Forcing these small businesses operating on federal lands to pay additional fees for permit and leasing activities will only serve to limit economic growth and job creation,” Russell said.

Rep. Michael Simpson, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, said he believed the issue of oil and gas fee hikes should be left to the authorizing committees of jurisdiction to address.

The appropriations bill “has also taken a bold step to address a number of regulatory issues…that hamper energy security,” Russell said. “From the unprecedented use of the Endangered Species Act to efforts that would add additional air permit activities on offshore producers to restructuring the scope of the Clean Water Act, the Obama administration continues to take actions that will stifle job creation and economic growth in the nation.”

The spending bill also incorporates House legislation (HR 2021), which was passed in June, that would require the EPA to act on exploratory air permits within a six-month time frame and would limit the ability of opponents to use the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to invalidate the permits for offshore exploration (see Daily GPI, June 24).

The appropriations measure calls for $9.9 billion in funding for Interior in FY 2012, which is $720 million below the level for the current fiscal year and $1.2 billion below Obama’s request; and $7.1 billion for the EPA — $1.5 billion less than this year and $1.8 billion below the president’s request for the agency (see Daily GPI, July 8).

Given that about 200 amendments have been filed, debate over the bill is expected to continue through the week, if not into the weekend. Whether the bill gets voted out of the House before the August recess will depend on what happens with the legislative proposals to raise the nation’s debt cap, CQ Today reported.

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