Letter to Senate Leadership

Dear Majority Leader Frist, Minority Leader Reid, Majority Whip McConnell and Assistant Minority Leader Durbin:

As Senators representing the four oil and natural gas producing states on the Gulf Coast, we look forward to working with you and the entire Congress to advance legislation that addresses important national energy issues.

While we strongly support opening new production in the Gulf to meet our energy demands and to move America toward energy independence, we stand firmly united in our resolve to ensure that the Gulf Coast states share in all future revenues produced on the Outer Continental Shelf.

For too long, the inequity of not sharing offshore mineral revenues with the Gulf Coast states has been allowed to stand. Protection of our coastline, and the vital national production platform it provides, must be a national policy priority that is incorporated into all related initiatives.

Legislation sponsored by Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Pete Domenici to open up production in the Lease Sale 181 area provides us with a specific and timely legislative vehicle that should be used to achieve our mutual objectives. This is a crucial opportunity we cannot afford to miss. We look forward to working together to further our common goals of both increasing offshore energy production as well as sharing a reasonable portion of the revenues from this production with the coastal states.

With respect and appreciation, we remain,

Thad Cochran Trent Lott Mary L. Landrieu John Cornyn Richard Shelby Kay Bailey Hutchison David Vitter Jeff Sessions

http://landrieu.senate.gov/~landrieu/releases/06/2006612905.html