Senator Landrieu Speaks Out On First Oil & Natural Gas Lease Sale Sine BP Spill

United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., released the following statement regarding today’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) that the federal government in December will hold the first oil and natural gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. The sale will take place in New Orleans on Dec. 14 and will include all available unleased areas in the Western Gulf Planning Area offshore Texas:  

“This lease sale is an important and encouraging step toward getting the Gulf of Mexico and its hardworking people back to work. Unfortunately, the slow pace of new permits in the Gulf places lingering uncertainty over this critical industry, which brings in billions of dollars a year to the U.S. Treasury and employs hundreds of thousands of Louisianians. At this crucial time in our struggling economic recovery, we need a clear vision for safe and reliable domestic energy production and job creation. I hope the Administration also will rethink its position and join me in supporting an automatic one-year extension of current leases that were lost due to the moratorium. Moving forward, I will continue to press the Administration to step up the pace, accelerate new permits, and put Gulf Coast residents back to work.” 

For more information on the lease sale, click here.