NEWS ARTICLES | June 15, 2010

Sen. Mary Landrieu urges Barack Obama to accelerate oil revenue sharing

By Bruce Alpert  |  New Orleans Times-Picayune  |  Link to article

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., today urged President Barack Obama to use his speech tonight on the Gulf oil spill to seek accelerated revenue sharing from offshore oil and gas development to help Louisiana restore its wetlands and marshes.

Obama will deliver his nationally televised speech at 7 p.m. CDT.

"Tonight's speech is the perfect opportunity to deliver this powerful message to the Gulf Coast and nation," Landrieu said in her letter to the president.

Landrieu has introduced legislation that would accelerate revenue sharing for coastal states, from 2017, as provided for in 2006 energy legislation, and make it take effect immediately. That would give Louisiana and other coastal states 37.5 percent of revenues collected from the new leases.

Landrieu's office estimates that the legislation would generate about an extra $100 million a year through 2017. That's far less than earlier estimates, which were based on projections for far more oil and gas leases.

But the lower estimates may make it easier to get her proposal through Congress, given the concerns about growing federal deficits.

There was no immediate comment from The White House. Garret Graves, who heads Gov. Bobby Jindal's Office of Coastal Activities, said ideally the state would get a share of all oil collected off the state's coast, just as states with land production get compensated. He said that would generate $1.7 billion to $2.8 billion a year immediately and, under the state's constitution, the money would all go to coastal sustainability and resiliency efforts.

"Sen. Landrieu's efforts to establish parity with how royalties are treated onshore are long overdue and good policy," Graves said.

Previously, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has testified that the administration would work with Landrieu on the revenue sharing issue, though he didn't provide any firm commitments.

A White House official laid out what she expects the president to discuss from his Oval Office speech, which he'll deliver after a two-day visit to Gulf Coast communities in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi:

-- Obama will lay out how we will deal with the oil that has leaked and what must be done to both cleanup now and ultimately restore the Gulf
-- Second, he will outline the steps being taken to help and protect those suffering economically as a result of this disaster, particularly in the claims process
-- Third, the president will outline the changes he believes are necessary to ensure that a disaster such as this never happens again
-- Finally, Obama will discuss what the nation's fundamental energy approach must be going forward to reduce its dependence on oil and fossil fuels.