A House committee issued a subpoena on Wednesday, demanding documents related to the administration’s Gulf Coast drilling permatorium. Republicans on the panel say the administration’s refusal to turn over documents made the action necessary. At issue is a controversial report issued by the Interior Department to justify its 2010 ban on new drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico. Interior, at which the subpoena is directed, edited language in a report on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to give the impression that a team of engineers had approved of the permatorium, when they had …
As gas prices continue to climb, approaching a nationwide average of nearly $4, lawmakers in Washington turned their attention to the drilling slowdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held the oversight hearing Thursday examining how the Obama administration’s policies have put a strain on businesses, causing economic instability and even forcing some employers to leave the area. “The economic impacts of this permit slow-down or de facto moratorium are diverse and far reaching, affecting individuals and businesses in various industries across the …
Few people have been more vocal about the challenges facing offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico than Sen. David Vitter. As a Republican from Louisiana, Vitter has firsthand knowledge of the Obama administration’s slow pace of permitting since last year’s oil spill. Louisiana has yet to fully recover from the drilling moratorium and the subsequent delays stemming from Washington. This week marked the first offshore lease sale in nearly two years — a sign of progress. However, bureaucrats are still taking 115 days to approve plans, nearly twice as …
A new report from a New Orleans-based group reveals that the Obama administration is approving just 35 percent of the oil drilling plans for the Gulf of Mexico so far this year. It is also taking an average of 115 days — nearly four months — to secure approval from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Those numbers contrast sharply from previous years. This historical average is a 73.4% approval rate. The approval time has nearly doubled; the historical average is 61 days for the government to approve …
The Obama administration is approving only 37 percent of the deepwater drilling plans submitted this year — a figure that falls below even last year’s low approval rate. It’s also taking federal bureaucrats an average of 115 days to approve the plans, nearly double the historical average. Greater New Orleans Inc. reported the numbers as part of its Gulf Permit Index, a measure of permit issuance. The data was provided by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement, which oversees shallow-water and deepwater permits. Last year’s numbers were …
Offshore oil and gas leases produced $10 billion in federal revenue only a few years ago. Today that number is zero, a consequence of the Obama administration’s reaction to last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the resulting moratorium on production in the region. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) says it’s a huge mistake for the federal government to forgo the money — and the jobs that result from the offshore leases. Writing for Roll Call today, Vitter outlines the extent of the problem: Revenue can’t be generated from lease …
Speaking at Heritage this morning, former Speaker Newt Gingrich called on House Republicans to put politics aside and pass a new proposal from two Democratic senators that would expand offshore drilling off Virginia’s coast. Gingrich suggested it should be one of the top priorities for the House GOP when lawmakers return in September. The plan would create jobs and add revenue to federal coffers — two points Gingrich made repeatedly throughout his speech on deficit reduction. “One of the proposals I have,” Gingrich said, “is a proposal that the House …
U.S. employers added only 18,000 jobs last month — a remarkably low figure that contributed to the increase in unemployment to 9.2 percent. That’s the bad news. Fortunately for American workers, the future is bright, but only if regulators in Washington, D.C., get out of the way. A new study from the respected IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates and IHS Global Insight reveals that the offshore oil and gas industry on its own could produce more jobs per month next year than the 18,000 that were created by all U.S. …
The one-year anniversary of the gulf oil spill was earlier this week. The policies that have been put in place since then have caused gas prices to skyrocket and caused the economic growth of the Gulf Region to stagnate. Join us on Friday from 12-1 ET for our “Lunch with Heritage” online chat. We will be joined by Policy Analyst Nick Loris and he will take your questions about the policies that have been implemented since the oil spill and their impact on the Gulf Region and nationally. If you …
A year ago today, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico cost the lives of 11 men and threatened untold damage to the ecosystem. It was an unprecedented disaster, and the tragic loss of life it entailed made it all the more imperative that such an accident never repeat itself. In the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe, the disaster response proved heroic: The crew of a Tidewater supply vessel rescued the 115 survivors of the explosion in little more than an hour. But in …
