Sean Parnell Joins Other Governors In Coastal Governors Coalition – Congress Focuses On OCS This Week

Commentary: We have written here for over two years about overreach of the federal government affecting both on- and off-shore natural resource exploration and development.  That overreach affects virtually every human activity in the North–including oil and gas pipeline efforts.  Yesterday in Houston, coastal governors — including Sean Parnell — began to organize a joint effort to augment their individual federal overreach defenses.  -dh

Houston Chronicle.  Rick Perry (NGP Photo) is joining governors from Alaska and other states bordering the Gulf of Mexico today in a bid to get coastal state governors more involved in decisions about energy production offshore.  “All federal decisions regarding exploration and production must be made in consultation with affected states,” the four governors said. “In recent months, however, the federal government has taken sweeping actions regarding offshore oil and gas activities with little consultation with the states.”  And too often, they say, those decisions have conflicted with the states’ best interests.  For instance, Gulf Coast governors who signed the letter have protested the administration’s decision to halt deep-water drilling after last year’s oil spill and postpone some sales of offshore drilling leases. And Virginia state leaders were upset by the Obama administration’s move to cancel a lease sale off their coastline.

May 2, 2011, Juneau, Alaska – Governor Sean Parnell (NGP Photo)  has joined a coalition of coastal state governors who want to begin a new dialogue with the federal government on offshore energy issues. … Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Dan Sullivan (NGP Photo) joined Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and natural resource commissioners from Texas, Louisiana and Virginia in Houston today for a panel discussion about offshore energy development in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill.Barbour, Sullivan and the other commissioners announced the creation of the coalition during the 2 p.m. (CT) panel discussion…. The new group, the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition, includes Parnell and the governors of Louisiana, Texas, Virginia and Mississippi. Today, in a letter, Parnell and other governors invited other U.S. coastal states to join the coalition.   *   Alaska Dispatch Story.

ABC/AP by Dan Joling.  Shell Alaska spokesman Curtis Smith says the company will seek permission to drill two wells in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s north shore and three in the Chukchi Sea off the state’s northwest shore in 2012.  They’re part of plan to drill 10 wells — four in the Beaufort and six in the Chukchi — using two drilling ships in 2012 and 2013.  Smith says the company expects to submit the plan of exploration for the Beaufort on Wednesday and for the Chukchi soon after.     *     KTUU by Ted Land.  Shell Oil Company plans to deliver a proposal to federal regulators Wednesday, outlining its goals for Alaska over the next few years.   *   ADN/AP.

The Hill by Andrew Restuccia.   The House is expected to vote this week on two GOP-sponsored energy bills. The first would require the Interior Department to make a decision within 30 days on pending Gulf of Mexico drilling permits. The second would require Interior to conduct offshore oil-and-gas lease sales in the Gulf and off the coast of Virginia.  The bills, part of a three-bill oil-and-gas production package introduced by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (NGP Photo), are expected to pass the House, but they face major hurdles in the Senate.

Grist, by David Goldston (Natural Resources Defense Council).  This week, the House could vote on three bills to expand offshore oil and gas drilling. It is remarkable enough that the House would take up such measures before Congress has done a thing to make drilling safer. But what is truly astounding about these bills is that they would actually make the system that governs offshore drilling weaker than it was before the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This is legislation that should give pause even to the most ardent proponents of offshore drilling.