SEA Applauds MMS Plan to Open New Areas for Offshore Development – Calls for State Revenue Share and Inclusion of Southeast States in New Five Year Plan
FREDERICKSBURG, VA – September 18, 2008. The Southeast Energy Alliance (SEA) applauded the Minerals Management Service today for initiating the process that will lead to a new Five Year OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program – and called for inclusion of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia in the new Five Year Plan – in formal comments filed with MMS today.
“Gasoline and diesel prices throughout the Southeast are simply too high for Washington to continue to ignore,” said SEA Executive Director Michael Whatley. SEA is grateful to MMS for recognizing that the most effective way to bring down sky-high prices is open up new areas of the Outer Continental Shelf for exploration and production.
“The economics of gasoline and diesel prices are pretty darn simple,” Whatley continued. “When crude oil prices go up, gasoline and diesel prices go up. If you want gasoline and diesel prices to go down, you have to reduce the price of oil. In order to reduce prices at the pump, we need to lift the ban on exploration and production of the Outer Continental Shelf, lift the moratoria on unconventional fuels development, such as oil shale, and develop a robust, balanced national energy program that will bring domestic energy online.
“The Southeast Energy Alliance urges MMS to include North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia in any new Five Year Plan and calls on the Administration and Congress to enact legislation that will enable states to receive an appropriate share of any royalty revenues collected by the federal government for production in their adjacent waters.”