Requests President Joe R. Biden Jr. and United States Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to immediately adopt a new five-year offshore leasing plan for the Gulf of Mexico to help reduce the cost of energy.
Urges and requests Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, to reconsider the directive that he issued which instituted six-month moratorium on oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and to possibly alter that directive to minimize the negative economic impact of such directive on the already damaged economies of the state of Louisiana and the other oil and gas producing states along the Gulf of Mexico.
Requests the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to maintain region-wide leasing in the Gulf of Mexico in the 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program without any further exclusions or restrictions.
Requests halt in actions that cancel or delay offshore oil and natural gas lease sales.
The Designation of the Gulf of Mexico
Memorializes the U.S. Congress and the Louisiana congressional delegation to remove the revenue sharing cap on the Gulf of Mexico Energy Securities Act of 2006 for Gulf producing states and to take such actions as are necessary to rectify the federal revenue sharing inequities between energy producing states
Urges the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to maintain region-wide leasing in the Gulf of Mexico in the 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program
Provide for the unitization of interests in drilling units in connection with shallow horizontal oil or gas wells
Lower Energy Costs Act This bill provides for the exploration, development, importation, and exportation of energy resources (e.g., oil, gas, and minerals). For example, it sets forth provisions to (1) expedite energy projects, (2) eliminate or reduce certain fees related to the development of federal energy resources, and (3) eliminate certain funds that provide incentives to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases. The bill expedites the development, importation, and exportation of energy resources, including by waiving environmental review requirements and other specified requirements under certain environmental laws, eliminating certain restrictions on the import and export of oil and natural gas, prohibiting the President from declaring a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing (a type of process used to extract underground energy resources), directing the Department of the Interior to conduct sales for the leasing of oil and gas resources on federal lands and waters as specified by the bill, and limiting the authority of the President and executive agencies to restrict or delay the development of energy on federal land. In addition, the bill reduces royalties for oil and gas development on federal land and eliminates charges on methane emissions. It also eliminates a variety of funds, such as funds for energy efficiency improvements in buildings as well as the greenhouse gas reduction fund.
Requests the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take actions necessary to timely review and grant the state of Louisiana's application for primacy in the administration of Class VI injection well permitting.