CEA Welcomes Inquiry of Five-Year Offshore Development Plan and Future Needs
CEA supports congressional efforts to understand future impacts
of Obama Administration’s draft five year plan
HOUSTON, TX: Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) strongly supports today’s House Committee on Natural Resources’s hearing highlighting the Obama Administration’s draft five year offshore leasing plan and its impacts on affordable energy supplies for the American consumer and economy.
The hearing will feature Tommy Beadreau, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, who will provide testimony and answer questions from lawmakers on the plan’s development, implementation and priorities.
CEA President David Holt released the following statement on the hearing:
“We are encouraged that Chairman Hastings continues to make the safe and responsible development of our nation’s offshore resources a key focus of his committee and one of our top national priorities. After all, energy is the lifeblood of our economy and its continued availability is critical to the success of our nation’s businesses and consumers.
“It is important to take a hard look at the plan to understand if it meets our national energy security and economic priorities. The current proposed lease sale has removed wide swaths of our nation’s offshore resources from development until 2017 leaving the affordable energy, government revenues and needed jobs it would create on the sidelines as our economy continues to emerge from the ongoing recession.
“Studies have shown that just returning to historical production levels in the Gulf of Mexico could provide between 110,000 to 230,000 jobs with larger offshore development having the potential to create over 1 million jobs and billions in additional revenues.
“At a time when our nation continues its nascent economic recovery, this hearing will help ensure we make sound energy policy decisions that will benefit the nation’s consumers and businesses.”
