WASHINGTON,
D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today stressed the importance of
advancing safety and production legislation concurrently through the Senate.
Murkowski, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee, made her comments during a hearing of that committee on offshore
safety.
“Our goal
should be to ensure our offshore industry is working safely, but that requires
that it be working,” Murkowski said. “I believe safety legislation is
appropriate, but such legislation should do just that – improve safety. We must
resist attempts to go beyond safety with measures that unduly restrict
responsible development and deter investment.”
Murkowski
pointed out that Alaskan offshore projects have been delayed a minimum of two
additional years, domestic oil development from the Gulf of Mexico is still at
only about a third of what it was before the administration instituted a
moratorium and the EIA continues to forecast serious production shortfalls as a
result.
“Our focus
should be on legislation that advances safety, production and a fair return of
revenue to coastal states simultaneously. I
mention those priorities in the same sentence because I believe they can – and
must – be part of the same policy. We need to address them together, and
if we do not, then I’m doubtful that it will succeed in reaching the
president’s desk,” Murkowski said.
Murkowski
supports efforts to strengthen federal oversight of offshore energy projects,
but disagrees with proposed measures that would alter the purposes of the Outer
Continental Shelf Lands Act from energy development to a statute focused on
environmental protection, a change Murkowski called “unnecessary.”
Offshore
operations are already covered by a long list of environmental statutes,
including the National Environmental Policy Act, Environmental Protection
Agency water and air regulations, Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal
Protection Act, and the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation Act.
Some of the
proposed changes in the majority bill go well beyond those requested by
Interior Secretary Salazar, Murkowski said.
“We have seen
that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act already does have real teeth,”
Murkowski said. “The existing law clearly provided sufficient authority for the
administration to impose a moratorium and, even after that, to hold off on
issuing drilling permits until there was a much greater degree of comfort with
safety and spill prevention systems.”
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