Full Bill Text

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that expands energy production on federal lands.

Highlights:

• Requires the Secretary of the Interior to conduct an offshore oil and gas lease sale on the outer continental shelf offshore Virginia no later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this bill (Sec. 10201).

• Requires the Secretary to conduct a lease sale off the coast of South Carolina for areas that provide the most “geologically promising” hydrocarbon resources and that represent at least 25 percent of the leasable area no later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this bill (Sec. 10202).

• Requires the Secretary to conduct sale leases for tracts in the Santa Maria and Santa Barbara/Ventura basins of the Southern California OCS Planning area no later than December 31, 2015 (Sec. 10203).

• Requires the Secretary to establish a competitive leasing program for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and sell at least 1 lease in the areas most likely to produce “commercial quantities” of oil and gas from 2014 to 2024 (Sec. 23003).

• Requires the Secretary to accept or deny a permit to drill within 30 days of receiving an application for the permit, unless the Secretary extends the application for up to 2 periods of 15 days each (Sec. 21111). 

• Authorizes the Secretary to conduct onshore lease sales through Internet-based bidding methods (Sec. 24002).

• Requires the Secretary to publish and submit to Congress a 5-year oil and gas leasing program which includes consideration of the areas of the continental shelf off the coasts of all the States (Sec. 10103).

• Establishes the Undersecretary for Energy, Lands, and Minerals within the Department of the Interior who is responsible for the “safe” and “responsible” development of energy and mineral resources on federal lands and who is appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate (Sec. 10401). 

• Prohibits the Bureau of Ocean Energy from developing, administering, or implementing a limitation on activities relating to coastal and marine spatial planning under jurisdiction authorized by Executive Order 13547 (Sec. 10410).

Full Bill Text

Full Bill Text