84R13831 BPG-D
By: Clardy H.C.R. No. 91
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, A provision in President Barack Obama's 2016 federal
budget would deprive Texas and three other Gulf Coast states of
hundreds of millions of dollars by redirecting funds owed them
under the 2006 Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act; and
WHEREAS, The legislation known as GOMESA requires the federal
government to share with Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama
37.5 percent of the revenue it collects from offshore oil and gas
rigs in the Gulf; in 2013, these rigs produced 17 percent of the
nation's 2.7 billion barrels of crude oil; and
WHEREAS, To date, only about $34 million has been distributed
under GOMESA, mostly generated by drilling in the eastern Gulf;
revenue will increase substantially in a few years as the law begins
to cover the far more productive central Gulf, and the White House
estimates the value of GOMESA revenue at $367 million for 2018; and
WHEREAS, The GOMESA funds are intended to compensate the
states for the environmental impact of offshore drilling, but the
president's budget would reallocate payments to a broad range of
programs around the country; such a redirection of funds would be
particularly inappropriate, given that inland states may keep half
of energy revenue produced on federal property, while the states
covered by GOMESA are receiving a little more than a third of
offshore drilling revenue that affects their coastlines; and
WHEREAS, The Gulf Coast states and neighboring offshore
waters have produced hundreds of billions of barrels of oil and tens
of trillions of cubic feet of natural gas over the past few decades,
but there are environmental costs associated with offshore
drilling; bipartisan legislation was passed to allow Texas and the
other states to develop appropriate programs concerning natural
resources along the Gulf shoreline, such as coastal restoration,
and the redistribution of offshore drilling revenue promised under
GOMESA would subvert the intention of Congress; now, therefore, be
it
RESOLVED, That the 84th Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby respectfully urge the president of the United States to
abandon the budget proposal redirecting offshore drilling revenue
due to Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi under the Gulf of
Mexico Energy Security Act; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all members
of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this
resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to
the Congress of the United States of America.