[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3710 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3710

To require the Secretary of the Interior to suspend Federal oil and gas 
 royalty relief for production of oil and natural gas occurring in any 
period with respect to which average oil and natural gas prices exceed 
                certain amounts, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 8, 2005

  Mr. Markey introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
     Committee on Resources, and in addition to the Committees on 
 Transportation and Infrastructure, Energy and Commerce, and Education 
 and the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require the Secretary of the Interior to suspend Federal oil and gas 
 royalty relief for production of oil and natural gas occurring in any 
period with respect to which average oil and natural gas prices exceed 
                certain amounts, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Hurricane Katrina Energy Emergency 
Relief Act''.

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT TO SUSPEND ROYALTY RELIEF.

    (a) Requirement to Suspend.--The Secretary of the Interior shall 
suspend the application of any provision of Federal law under which any 
person is given relief from any requirement to pay royalty for 
production oil or natural gas from Federal lands (including submerge 
lands), for production occurring in any period with respect to which--
            (1) in the case of production of oil, the average price of 
        crude oil in the United States over the most recent 4 
        consecutive weeks is greater than $40 per barrel; and
            (2) in the case of production of natural gas, the average 
        wellhead price of natural gas in the United States over the 
        most recent 4 consecutive weeks is greater than $5 per thousand 
        cubic feet.
    (b) Determination of Market Price.--The Secretary shall determine 
average prices for purposes of subsection (a) based on the most recent 
data reported by the Energy Information Administration of the 
Department of Energy.

SEC. 3. USE OF ROYALTIES RECEIVED AS RESULT OF SUSPENSION OF ROYALTY 
              RELIEF.

    Amount received by the United States as royalty for production oil 
or natural gas from Federal lands (including submerged lands) that is 
required to be paid by reason of section 2 may, in the discretion of 
the President, be used--
            (1) to provide disaster relief authorized under any other 
        Federal law; and
            (2) to carry out the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance 
        Program.
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