Full Bill Text

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that increases lease sales for offshore oil and gas and reforms the Department of the Interior.

Highlights:

• Requires the Secretary of the Interior to publish and submit to Congress before July 15, 2014 a new oil and gas leasing program for the period from July 15, 2015 to July 15, 2020 that considers all areas of the Continental Shelf (Sec. 103). 

• Requires the Secretary to approve the oil and gas leasing program by July 15, 2015 (Sec. 103). 

• Requires the Secretary to offer oil and gas leases for at least 50 percent of the available unleased acreage within each Outer Continental Shelf planning area (Sec. 101).

• Requires the Secretary to offer a lease for any Outer Continental Shelf planning area that is either (Sec. 101):
• Estimated to contain more than 2.5 billion barrels of oil; or
• Estimated to contain more than 7.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

• Requires the Secretary to determine a domestic strategic production goal for the development of Continental Shelf oil and natural gas that meets the following requirements (Sec. 102):
• Equal to the best estimate of total possible increase in domestic production of oil and natural gas from the Outer Continental Shelf;
• Equal to an increase of at least 3 million barrels of oil per day by 2032; and
• Equal to an increase of at least 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day by 2032. 

• Requires the Secretary to conduct Lease Sale 220 for the Outer Continental Shelf of Virginia within 1 year of the enactment of this bill (Sec. 201). 

• Requires the Secretary to conduct a lease sale for at least 25 percent of the leasable areas of the South Carolina Outer Continental Shelf within 2 years of the enactment of this bill (Sec. 202).

• Requires the Secretary to conduct a lease sale for the Santa Maria and Santa Barbara-Ventura Basins of the Southern California Outer Continental Shelf by December 31, 2014, and to specify that development and production may only be carried out using pre-existing offshore infrastructure or onshore-based, extended-reach drilling (Sec. 203).

• Requires the Secretary to prepare an environmental impact statement for the lease sales required by the provisions of this bill that identifies a preferred action for leasing and no more than 1 alternative leasing proposal (Sec. 204).

• Requires that 37.5 percent of total revenue from new lease of Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas under the Offshore Energy and Jobs Act be paid to coastal states within 200 miles of the leased area (Sec. 301).

• Requires the Secretary to establish a National Offshore Energy Health and Safety Academy to train and certify offshore oil and gas inspectors, and to train the technical support of the Bureau of Ocean Energy (Sec. 403). 

• Requires the Secretary to establish an Outer Continental Shelf Energy Safety Advisory Board to provide independent scientific and technical advice on mineral and renewable energy exploration, development, and production activities, and to review operations of the National Offshore Energy Health and Safety Academy (Sec. 408). 

• Prohibits the Bureau of Ocean Energy and the Ocean Energy Safety Service from using the National Ocean Policy developed under Executive Order No. 13547 to develop, propose, finalize, administer, or implement any limitation on Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas development (Sec. 410).

• Requires a legal claim arising from an energy decision under the provisions of this bill to be filed within 60 days of the date of the decision (Sec. 701).

Full Bill Text

Full Bill Text