II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 109
To require the Secretary of the Interior to conduct certain offshore lease
sales under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY16, 2025
Mr. C
ASSIDY(for himself, Mrs. HYDE-SMITH, Mr. WICKER, Mrs. BRITT, and
Mr. T
UBERVILLE) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
A BILL
To require the Secretary of the Interior to conduct certain
offshore lease sales under the Outer Continental Shelf
Lands Act, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Offshore Energy Secu-4
rity Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASE SALES. 6
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 7
(1) O
FFSHORE LEASE SALE .—The term ‘‘off-8
shore lease sale’’ means an oil and gas lease sale— 9
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(A) that is held by the Secretary in accord-1
ance with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands 2
Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.), notwithstanding 3
the requirements of section 18 of that Act (43 4
U.S.C. 1344); 5
(B) offers the same lease form, lease 6
terms, economic conditions, and stipulations as 7
contained in the final notice of sale entitled 8
‘‘Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Oil 9
and Gas Lease Sale 261’’ (88 Fed. Reg. 80750 10
(November 20, 2023)); and 11
(C) that, if any acceptable bids have been 12
received for any tract offered in the lease sale, 13
results in the issuance of leases within 90 days 14
of the sale to the highest bids on the tracts of-15
fered, subject to the procedures for determining 16
bid adequacy of the Bureau of Ocean Energy 17
Management, effective March 8, 2016, with re-18
spect to— 19
(i) Central Gulf of Mexico Sale 241; 20
and 21
(ii) Eastern Gulf of Mexico Sale 226. 22
(2) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 23
the Secretary of the Interior. 24
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(b) WAIVER.—The Secretary may waive any other re-1
quirements under section 18 of the Outer Continental 2
Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1344) that would delay final 3
approval of an offshore lease sale under subsection (c). 4
(c) R
EQUIREMENT.—Notwithstanding the 2024– 5
2029 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leas-6
ing Program, the Secretary shall— 7
(1) conduct not fewer than 20 offshore lease 8
sales, as described under subsection (d), during the 9
10-year period beginning on the date of enactment 10
of this Act; and 11
(2) to the maximum extent practicable, carry 12
out a lease sale under this subsection in accordance 13
with the Record of Decision approved by the Sec-14
retary on January 17, 2017, and described in the 15
notice of availability of the Bureau of Ocean Energy 16
Management entitled ‘‘Record of Decision for the 17
2017–2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas 18
Leasing Program Final Programmatic Environ-19
mental Impact Statement; MMAA104000’’ (82 Fed. 20
Reg. 6643 (January 19, 2017)). 21
(d) T
IMING.—In conducting the offshore lease sales 22
under subsection (c), the Secretary shall conduct a lease 23
sale under this section not later than each of the following 24
dates: 25
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(1) March 31, 2026. 1
(2) August 31, 2026. 2
(3) March 31, 2027. 3
(4) August 31, 2027. 4
(5) March 31, 2028. 5
(6) August 31, 2028. 6
(7) March 31, 2029. 7
(8) August 31, 2029. 8
(9) March 31, 2030. 9
(10) August 31, 2030. 10
(11) March 31, 2031. 11
(12) August 31, 2031. 12
(13) March 31, 2032. 13
(14) August 31, 2032. 14
(15) March 31, 2033. 15
(16) August 31, 2033. 16
(17) March 31, 2034. 17
(18) August 31, 2034. 18
(19) March 31, 2035. 19
(20) August 31, 2035. 20
(e) A
REAOFFERED FORLEASE.— 21
(1) A
CREAGE.—The Secretary shall offer not 22
fewer than 74,000,000 acres for each offshore lease 23
sale conducted under subsection (c). 24
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(2) LOCATION.—An offshore lease sale con-1
ducted under subsection (c) shall be in the Gulf of 2
Mexico Region Program Area as identified in Figure 3
S–1 of the 2017–2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil 4
and Gas Leasing Proposed Final Program published 5
on November 18, 2016 by the Bureau of Ocean En-6
ergy Management (as announced in the notice of 7
availability of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Manage-8
ment entitled ‘‘Notice of Availability of the 2017– 9
2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing 10
Proposed Final Program (81 Fed. Reg. 84612 (No-11
vember 23, 2016)))’’. 12
(f) E
FFECT OFLITIGATION.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—A civil action relating to an 14
environmental review under the National Environ-15
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) 16
with respect to an offshore lease sale conducted 17
under this section shall not— 18
(A) affect the validity of a lease issued 19
under the offshore lease sale that is the subject 20
of the civil action; or 21
(B) except as provided in paragraph 22
(3)(B), cause a delay in the timelines for the 23
consideration of an application for permit to 24
drill with respect to a lease issued under the 25
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offshore lease sale that is the subject of the civil 1
action. 2
(2) R
EMAND; PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS 3
FOR PERMIT TO DRILL .—If, in a civil action de-4
scribed in paragraph (1), the environmental review 5
for an offshore lease sale is found by the applicable 6
court to violate the National Environmental Policy 7
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.)— 8
(A) notwithstanding subchapter II of chap-9
ter 5, and chapter 7, of title 5, United States 10
Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Administrative 11
Procedures Act’’), the applicable court shall not 12
set aside the offshore lease sale and vacate the 13
leases issued pursuant to the sale but instead 14
remand the matter to the Secretary to resolve 15
the violation; and 16
(B) the Secretary shall continue to process 17
all applicable applications for permit to drill in 18
accordance with the Outer Continental Shelf 19
Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.). 20
(3) N
OTICE.— 21
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days 22
after the date on which a civil action described 23
in paragraph (1) is filed, the Secretary shall no-24
tify the holder of any lease issued under the 25
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lease sale that is the subject of the civil action 1
of the filing of the civil action. 2
(B) T
IMELINE.—Not later than 90 days 3
after the date of receipt of a notice under sub-4
paragraph (A), the holder of the lease may file 5
with the Secretary, and the Secretary may ap-6
prove, a request to pause the timeline with re-7
spect to the term of the lease during any period 8
in which the civil action is pending. 9
(g) M
ORATORIUM ONOIL ANDGASLEASING IN THE 10
E
ASTERNGULF OFMEXICO.—Section 104 of the Gulf of 11
Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 (43 U.S.C. 1331 12
note; Public Law 109–432) is amended— 13
(1) in subsection (a)— 14
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 15
by striking ‘‘June 30, 2022’’ and inserting ‘‘De-16
cember 31, 2035’’; 17
(B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘or’’ 18
after the semicolon; 19
(C) in paragraph (3)(B)(iii), by striking 20
the period at the end and inserting a semicolon; 21
and 22
(D) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(4) any area in the South Atlantic Planning 24
Area (as designated by the Bureau of Ocean Energy 25
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Management as of the date of enactment of this 1
paragraph); or 2
‘‘(5) any area in the Straits of Florida Planning 3
Area (as designated by the Bureau of Ocean Energy 4
Management as of the date of enactment of this 5
paragraph).’’; and 6
(2) by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(d) E
FFECT ONCERTAINLEASES.—The moratoria 8
under subsection (a) shall not affect valid existing leases 9
in effect on the date of enactment of this subsection. 10
‘‘(e) E
NVIRONMENTAL EXCEPTIONS.—Notwith-11
standing subsection (a), the Secretary may issue leases in 12
areas described in that subsection for environmental con-13
servation purposes, including the purposes of shore protec-14
tion, beach nourishment and restoration, wetlands restora-15
tion, and habitat protection.’’. 16
Æ
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