Many states oppose Trump's offshore drilling plan. House Republicans want to charge them for it.
Many elected leaders from both parties, and on both the East and West coasts, have voiced opposition to the Trump administration's plan to expand offshore drilling.
To that, Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee had something to say: If you want to block offshore development, put your money where your mouth is.
That committee, led by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), put forward a proposal this week to impose hefty fees on states that do not approve of drilling for oil and natural gas off their coasts, I reported Wednesday.
Here is how that no-drill fee would work, if it comes to fruition: The committee's draft proposal says that states will be allowed to disapprove of drilling offshore in up to half of the lease blocks off its coast without incurring a penalty.
But any state with a proposed lease sale that wants to put more than 50 percent of the blocks off-limits would be required to pay a fee equal to at least one-tenth the estimated government revenue that would have been generated from lease sales, royalties and other revenue streams, if oil and gas drilling had taken place.
The bill would also create a revenue-sharing scheme for states that decide to drill. Under current law, only Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas receive a share of offshore oil and gas receipts. The draft bill will be discussed at a committee hearing Thursday.
Democrats objected to the idea of dinging states for protecting their coastlines, saying the plan could cost individual states hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in fees.
“This bill is a ransom note in a cheap disguise,” Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (Ariz.), the committee’s top Democrat, said in a statement. “Penalizing states for protecting their own beaches is what you’d see in a petro-state, not in a modern democracy. The Republicans on this committee seem to think we’re here to do industry’s bidding regardless of the consequences, and until control of Congress changes, this is the best the American people can expect.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2018/06/14/the-energy-202-many-states-oppose-trump-s-offshore-drilling-plan-house-republicans-want-to-charge-them-for-it/5b2163cc30fb04775d8813e3/?utm_term=.fcfd3b74ebc1
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