[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 21, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     INTRODUCTION OF THE USE IT ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 21, 2010

  Mr. MARKEY of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, recently, President Obama 
announced a 5-year offshore drilling plan that would allow oil and gas 
exploration in new areas off the East Coast and in the Eastern Gulf of 
Mexico. However, before oil companies drill off thousands of miles of 
pristine coastline, they should first use the thousands of drilling 
leases they already own.
  Right now, oil companies hold the offshore drilling rights to an area 
the size of Pennsylvania on which they are not actually drilling. In 
fact, of 7,316 total offshore leases held by oil companies right now, 
only 1,844 are producing, according to the Interior Department. 
Production is occurring on only 8,894,428 acres on the Outer 
Continental Shelf out of 39,331,641 total acres leased to oil 
companies. That means that oil companies are producing on only about 
one-quarter of the leases and roughly 22 percent of the acreage that 
they hold offshore.
  As a result, today I am introducing legislation that would provide an 
incentive to oil companies to move quickly to get oil to the market or 
relinquish the leases so that they could be developed by other 
companies. My legislation, the United States Exploration on Idle Tracts 
Act or the USE IT Act, would establish an escalating fee over time on 
nonproducing leases to encourage companies to expedite production. 
Similar legislation repeatedly passed the House in the last Congress 
with large, bipartisan majorities.
  President Obama has also included this concept in his budget request 
for fiscal year 2011. The Department of Interior estimates that the 
proposed fee would raise $760 million over the next ten years--allowing 
us to drill for oil while also drilling for deficit dollars on behalf 
of U.S. taxpayers.
  As gas prices once again move towards $3 per gallon, it is time to 
finally get oil companies to ``use it or lose it'' on their 
nonproducing leases.

                          ____________________