Consumer Energy Alliance

Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization created to help expand the dialogue between the energy and consuming sectors to improve understanding of energy security, more effectively develop and use both renewable and oil & gas energy resources in an environmentally conscious manner, create sound energy policy and maintain stable energy prices for consumers.

CEA Applauds New Bill Enlisting New States in Fight for Secure, Affordable Energy

CEA president says revenue-sharing bill will give states ‘both the authority and the incentive’ to explore for energy off their shores

HOUSTON – July 27, 2009 All of the nation’s 23 coastal states would receive the same percentage of offshore energy revenue currently enjoyed by Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama if legislation introduced today in the Senate were to become law. Under current law, Gulf Coast states are entitled to 37.5 percent of the energy royalties produced offshore. States that produce energy on federal onshore lands currently benefit from a 50-50 revenue split with the federal government.

The bill, authored by U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.), would end the current revenue-sharing legal inequity while encouraging new states to help advance key national goals related to energy security, accessibility and affordability.

Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) president David Holt issued the following statement today applauding the legislation:

“While energy-producing states have always been among the national leaders in job creation, economic development and energy affordability, it’s not unreasonable for them to expect equal treatment with states that generate billions in annual revenues from onshore and offshore production royalties. This bill would end the current inequity, and in the process help deliver a future in which more states are given both the authority and the incentive to produce homegrown energy resources for themselves, their future, and the security and well-being of the American people.”

Added Holt: “CEA has long supported the equitable distribution of these energy-related royalties, and we stand ready and eager to work with Sens. Murkowski and Landrieu to help folks understand why this change in policy is so critical to America’s consumers and producers of energy.”

NOTE: Also today, the Southeast Energy Alliance, the southeastern chapter of CEA, formally released the findings of a recent study on the economic impact that responsible offshore energy development could have on the state of North Carolina. Among its key findings, the report found that offshore oil and gas exploration could create more than 6,700 new jobs in the state, increase North Carolina’s GDP by $659 million a year, and generate approximately $148 billion in federal, state and local revenues. A copy of the report can be found here.