Following up on 12 weeks of mark-up and passage earlier this year of sweeping energy legislation that would expand drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico (GOM), the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday held a hearing on environmental stewardship polices related to offshore energy production — and heard widely differing opinions from representatives of the drilling industry and conservation groups.

Passed by the committee in June, the American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009 included an amendment, offered by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), that would permit oil and natural gas activity in the eastern GOM 45 miles off Florida’s west coast and 10 miles off the Florida Panhandle in the gas-rich Destin Dome (see Daily GPI, June 18). The Dorgan proposal did not include language that would allow coastal states that open their shores to production to share revenues with the federal government — an omission that has been criticized by Sen. Mary Landrieu and other lawmakers and producers.

Landrieu and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) voted against the bill in June, but for different reasons. Landrieu didn’t think the measure went far enough to encourage offshore drilling and frowned on its lack of a royalty-sharing language, while Menendez — a vocal critic of offshore drilling — said it didn’t go far enough to spur the production of clean energy.

Environmental laws already in place in the United States are among the world’s most restrictive and may be hindering exploration and production, some witnesses said at the hearing.

“In my view environmental regulations are among the most stringent we see anywhere in the world, and they provide the highest level of environmental protection that we see anywhere in the world,” said David Rainey, vice president, GOM exploration for BP America.

But representatives of conservation groups said more needs to be done to protect oceans from the effects of offshore drilling.

“When things go wrong offshore, the results can be disastrous, difficult to remediate, and extremely costly to both industry and society,” said SkyTruth President John Amos.

The Dorgan amendment would shrink the no-drill buffer zone for Florida by 64% to 45 miles (or less) from 125 miles. The 125-mile, no-drill buffer zone for Florida was established in an energy bill passed by Congress in December 2006 (see Daily GPI, Dec. 21, 2006). The narrow buffer zone could set a risky precedent for states like New Jersey, which could be affected by coastline drilling off of nearby states, Menendez said.

Floor debate on energy and climate change legislation will begin in the Senate “sometime in the spring,” according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) (see Daily GPI, Nov. 19). Following a meeting with Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and other Democratic senators Monday, Reid said the Democrats are looking for ways to craft a bipartisan climate protection bill that will attract more than 60 votes. Boxer has said that Reid will combine her committee’s bill, which was passed earlier this month following a boycott of the markup by Republican senators, with other pieces of energy legislation and has committed to doing a complete economic analysis of that final bill (see Daily GPI, Nov. 4).

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