President Invokes Florida Lawmaker's Plan for Reducing U.S. Reliance on Foreign Oil

Press Release

President Obama today invoked a plan by U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson and Robert Menendez as a means to reducing America's reliance on foreign oil.

In a speech unveiling a major new energy policy, Obama told an audience at Georgetown University that the U.S. is sitting on tens of millions of acres of oil leases where it's not producing a drop.

He pushed the idea of drilling on unused lands before giving the companies more leases as a key part of a broader energy plan. Obama also wants Americans to use more natural gas and take advantage of wind and solar power.

Meantime, Nelson and Menendez already have legislation that would require companies to use the land they lease from the government, or pay a fee. The two lawmakers filed their bill earlier this month.

"This is something we've been looking at for a long time," said Nelson. "It's one of a number of common sense steps we can take to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and work to keep gas prices affordable."

The oil industry has 38 million acres leased onshore but less than half are actually producing oil. Offshore, in places like the Gulf of Mexico, the industry has almost 38 million acres under lease with only 10.5 million acres actually producing oil.

More specifically, the Menendez-Nelson legislation would require companies to detail how they intend to develop federal leases and imposes a fee on each acre the oil companies don't use.

"There are tens of millions of acres that are currently under lease that remain idle," Heather Zichal, deputy assistant to the president for energy and climate change told Bloomberg News recently. "Taxpayers are not getting the full advantage of America's resource potential," she added.

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