American Energy Exploration

By U.S. Senator Jon Kyl The United States currently produces less than 40 percent of the oil it consumes, yet for 26 years, Congress has barred the production of oil and natural gas from federal waters off our own shores. Exploration is only permitted off the coasts of Alaska, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The President recently challenged Congress to remove the ban. The world uses about 80 million barrels of oil per day; and the U.S. consumes more than a quarter of that amount. Only eight million barrels per day is produced domestically. The rest approximately 12-million barrels is purchased from foreign countries. Clearly, if Congress is going do something meaningful to help reduce gas prices, it needs to address the issue of supply. Opening up additional waters and lands at home is a commonsense way to increase supply, reduce reliance on foreign oil, and bring some relief at the pump. Today, close to 600 million acres of federal coastal waters are off-limits to exploration. According to the Interior Department, these waters are believed to hold at least 18 billion barrels of undiscovered, recoverable oil; and this estimate is likely low because there has been no exploration allowed in those restricted waters for over 30 years. Lifting the ban on offshore exploration, particularly off the coast of Florida, could have the most immediate effect on the price of gasoline. Florida is an attractive offshore resource the infrastructure for development and production is already in place in the Gulf of Mexico, where the U.S. expects to produce more than 2.2 million barrels of oil per day by 2012. If resources off of the Florida coast were developed, another million barrels per day or more could be added to that total. The main concern about oil production off our coasts has been about the potential damage to popular beaches, in states like Florida, if an oil spill were to occur. However, exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of other U.S states has resulted in no major oil spills, even during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In the Arctic plain, the environmental footprint would be small an area the size of Sky Harbor Airport. Development of the Arctic resource will take time, and that is why it is important to start now. If President Bill Clinton had not vetoed legislation authorizing Arctic development in 1995, oil would likely be flowing from the area today, easing prices at the pump and helping to insulate our country from the whims of OPEC. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that the area could have up to 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil an amount that is equivalent to 30 years of Saudi oil imports. Senate Republicans tried earlier this year to remove impediments to domestic production. (We proposed an amendment on May 13 that would open 2,000 acres of the 19-million acre Arctic plain to oil and gas leasing, and also allow coastal states to petition the federal government to allow environmentally responsible energy exploration and development off of their shores.) Unfortunately, that effort was defeated. The President recently said, For many Americans, there is no more pressing concern than the price of gasoline. Every American who drives to work, purchases food, or ships a product has felt the effect, and families across the country are looking to Washington for a response. Its time for Congress to get off the dime and remove the legal impediments to energy exploration on federal land, off shore, in the deep waters of the Gulf, and the oil shale formations in the Western United States. U.S. Senator Jon Kyl is the Assistant Republican Leader and serves on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees. Visit his website at www.kyl.senate.gov.