[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6891-6893]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        NATIONAL ENERGY POLICIES

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, yesterday I introduced two bills on a 
subject of great importance--two different subjects--related to our 
national energy policy. The two bills were the Oil and Gas Facilitation 
Act of 2011. The second was the Outer Continental Shelf Reform Act of 
2011.
  Both of these bills are based on bipartisan, largely consensus work, 
that was done in the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources during 
the last Congress. I should note that these important issues are being 
addressed in separate bills very consciously and for a reason. In the 
past we have crafted comprehensive energy bills that attempted to 
address all of the energy policy issues of the day in a single piece of 
legislation. There are obvious advantages to that. But there are well-
documented disadvantages as well. I wish to avoid those disadvantages 
this year in furtherance of completing our important work.
  There is no disagreement in the Senate about the need to have robust 
and responsible domestic production of oil and gas. At the same time, 
there is probably considerable disagreement about how best to address 
that issue. We need to begin work on that. However, ensuring the safety 
and viability of our operations on the Outer Continental Shelf is a 
separate matter which deserves attention on its own. The question of 
how we undertake oil and gas exploration and production on the Outer 
Continental Shelf appropriately, in my view, stands apart from the 
question of where we undertake those activities.
  I do not believe it would make sense to try to trade off safety or 
environmental protections against the issue of access, for example. I 
believe the Congress should set an appropriate level of safety and 
environmental compliance, regardless of where the oil and gas 
exploration and production is occurring.
  I will also observe that there was much greater consensus on the need 
to reform the rules governing Outer Continental Shelf production in the 
last Congress than on other issues such as those related to access to 
particular areas. So conflating these separate issues in the one bill 
is not likely to be the best path to success in enacting a bill into 
public law. Accordingly, we have introduced two bills.

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  That is not to say we don't have a responsibility to address both 
issues. We do. I believe they should be addressed on parallel tracks 
and not in combination. I hope to be able to move forward in the 
committee with consideration of both of these bills later this month.
  The first of the bills, the Oil and Gas Facilitation Act, is intended 
to enhance sufficient and appropriate domestic production of oil and 
gas and to limit the dependence of the United States on foreign sources 
of oil.
  The last 2 years have been a time of real success in increasing our 
domestic production of both oil and gas and in reducing our reliance on 
imported oil. We are currently the third largest producer of oil in the 
world. The percentage of the oil we use that is imported has declined 
from 60 percent in 2008 to about 51.5 percent in 2009 and to about 49 
percent in 2010. We want to be sure we continue this progress while 
protecting our other natural resources and our communities' health and 
safety.
  This bill, the Oil and Gas Facilitation Act, addresses production 
issues in a variety of ways. It requires a comprehensive inventory of 
the oil and natural gas under the waters of the Outer Continental Shelf 
to inform decisions about where leasing is likely to be most 
productive. To improve the efficiency of the permitting process for 
development on Federal lands and waters, permit coordination offices 
are reauthorized, and a new coordination office is established for the 
Alaska region of the Outer Continental Shelf.
  Two provisions facilitate the transportation of Alaska's abundant oil 
and gas resources. The amount of Federal guarantee instruments is 
increased to support the construction of an Alaska natural gas pipeline 
and the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline system is exempted from certain 
requirements that unnecessarily slow the permitting process.
  Coproduction of geothermal energy by existing oil and gas 
leaseholders is encouraged by making leases available for that purpose 
on a noncompetitive basis.
  Finally, the bill will potentially contribute millions to the Federal 
Treasury by repealing the current law that requires the Secretary of 
the Interior to give relief from royalty payments to certain offshore 
oil and gas production. This bill would allow the Secretary to provide 
such relief in appropriate circumstances, but it would not require such 
relief. This avoids inappropriate giveaways of taxpayer-owned oil and 
gas resources to industry when it is unnecessary for us to maintain 
robust domestic production.
  These provisions are drawn almost verbatim from S. 1462 which was 
reported by our committee on a bipartisan basis in the last Congress. 
The one significant change is that certain funding for the offshore oil 
and gas inventory provided by S. 1462 is redirected by the committee in 
subsequent legislation to be used for research on safety issues related 
to offshore oil and gas drilling. To avoid spending the same money 
twice, we have eliminated that funding here so it could be included in 
offshore safety legislation. At the same time, the bill retains the 
authorization of significant appropriations to be used for this oil and 
gas inventory.
  The Outer Continental Shelf Reform Act is the other bill I am 
introducing. It is a verbatim reproduction of S. 3516 which was 
reported unanimously by our Energy Committee in the last Congress. 
Because of the widespread support for this bill, I have reintroduced it 
exactly as reported, since I believe it is a good place to begin our 
work this year. It will need a bit of updating as we move forward. A 
few of the provisions have largely been overtaken by events and we have 
learned from the President's Oil Spill Commission and others about some 
refinements we should make in this legislation.
  I have been having discussions with Senator Murkowski and others who 
supported last year's bill and I will continue those discussions as we 
move forward. I hope we will have the same strong bipartisan support 
for these efforts as we did last year when we reported this bill during 
the midst of the worst oilspill in our Nation's history. Our commitment 
to responsible operations in the gulf and protection of our citizens 
and communities should be well understood by all.
  This bill is intended to respect those who lost their lives in the 
Deepwater Horizon accident and respect the people of the gulf who have 
suffered serious economic and emotional harm by doing what we can to 
create a better future for them. It is the particular responsibility of 
the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to look at the future of 
the regulatory agency and the industry it regulates. As I said last 
year when we introduced this bill, our goal must be, of course, to 
prevent future disasters, but we can and must do more than that. 
Congress should create organizational resources and a set of 
requirements that will have safety and environmental protection and 
innovation at their core. We should require that both industry and 
agency employees have the expertise, the experience, and the commitment 
to quality that is necessary to handle the complex issues involved, and 
we should set principles in place to create a culture of excellence for 
the regulatory agency and for the industry that will be a model for the 
entire world.
  Thus, this bill reforms the structure of the offices of the 
Department of the Interior dealing with offshore oil and gas leasing 
and development to avoid organizational conflicts of interest. It 
clarifies the breadth of the Department's responsibilities in managing 
the resources of the Outer Continental Shelf.
  It increases the safety requirements for exploration and well 
drilling and production. It mandates use of best available technology, 
an evidentiary safety case, and a risk management system that 
identifies and addresses hazards in advance and manages for change. It 
provides for third-party review by qualified parties outside the agency 
of key equipment and well design.
  It addresses the essential need for the Department of the Interior to 
have in-house research capacity on both the safety and the marine 
environment issues necessary for the exercise of its regulatory 
authority. Research departments in these areas will no longer be 
optional, but are required, and funding is redirected from other areas 
of research to ensure this will happen.
  In order to ensure that the rules are enforced, the bill requires the 
collection of fees from industry to fully fund the necessary teams of 
inspectors. It provides for independent investigations of accidents and 
the sharing of data so that all can learn from mistakes. It also 
provides the Department of the Interior with adequate time to carry out 
necessary reviews and it makes the input of other Federal agencies 
occur in a transparent way. And it increases the civil and criminal 
penalties applicable to violations of the law and regulations.
  I believe these policies and resources can set us on a new and 
constructive path toward managing the incredible natural resources we 
have on the Outer Continental Shelf. We must commit ourselves to the 
goal of excellence in this important endeavor. The fact that oil is no 
longer gushing into the Gulf of Mexico in no way diminishes the 
importance of this work.
  Both of these bills address issues of great national importance. We 
will shortly be scheduling the necessary hearings and preparing these 
bills for committee consideration. If at all possible, we will do so 
before the Memorial Day recess. I look forward to working with my 
colleagues on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and in the 
rest of the Senate on a bipartisan basis as we have in the past to 
address the vital issues presented by both of these bills.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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