FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE              CONTACT: ROBERT DILLON (202) 224-6977

MARCH 17, 2011                                        MEGAN HERMANN (202) 224-7875

                                  

 

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, on Wednesday blasted proposed legislation – the so-called “Use It or Lose It” bill offered by Democratic Senators Bill Nelson, Bob Menendez and Chuck Schumer – that would penalize companies for leasing federal lands and waters for energy production.

 

Murkowski, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called the bill an attempt to shift blame for rising gasoline prices to energy producers. 

 

“While I don’t accept my colleagues’ analysis, I am glad to see them acknowledge that increasing domestic oil production will help address rising energy prices,” Murkowski said. “Unfortunately, their bill is misguided. Our laws already reflect a use-it-or-lose-it policy; that’s why we have lease terms and a range of lease fees. It’s the current administration’s intentional slowdown of the permitting process that is stopping millions of acres onshore and offshore from producing the energy we need. In Alaska, ConocoPhillips and Shell have both seen work on promising oil projects blocked by government obstruction. To hold them responsible – and force them to pay for delays that are not their fault – is simply absurd.”

 

Shell has invested nearly $4 billion in leases off Alaska’s northern coast, but its exploration plans have been blocked for five years by permitting delays and environmental lawsuits.

“Shell’s willingness to invest such a massive amount of money shows they’re serious about producing energy for this nation,” Murkowski said.

 

Murkowski also pointed out that opening new lands to leasing – instead of claiming that existing leases could produce more – would be a far more effective approach for increasing domestic oil production.

 

“The reality is that more than 90 percent of federal offshore and onshore areas that could be leased are not,” Murkowski said. “We have billions of barrels of oil within our own borders just waiting to be discovered and developed. That all adds up to very real amounts of revenue and thousands of well-paying American jobs. It’s time the federal government sends the market a signal that we’re serious about producing our own resources by taking steps to encourage companies to produce instead of trying to run them off leases.”

 

The Interior Department already gives federal leaseholders a deadline of five to 10 years to develop an area’s oil and natural gas resources, and the Secretary of the Interior has the authority to cancel leases of companies that fail to comply with federal regulations.

 

The Mineral Leasing Act requires companies with onshore leases to begin production within 10 years or surrender the leases. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act requires companies with offshore leases must produce energy between five to 10 years or surrender the lease.