Energy Tomorrow Blog
Expanding Offshore Access is Key to U.S. Energy Security
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Mark Green
Posted May 1, 2017
Last week’s presidential executive order embracing increased access to America’s offshore natural gas and oil reserves jumpstarts an important conversation about the needed, positive steps to make the United States’ energy future more secure. With 94 percent of federal offshore acreage currently off limits to development, there are more questions about that future than if safe offshore access was the rule instead of the exception to the rule. The president’s order begins the process of changing the offshore equation. API Upstream Group Director Erik Milito talked about the offshore executive order and the need to build on it during a conference call with reporters.
Ordering Up Increased Offshore Access
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Mark Green
Posted April 28, 2017
100 Days: Access to Arctic Energy Key to U.S. Security
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Mark Green
Posted March 20, 2017
There’s great opportunity to responsibly develop Alaska’s great oil and natural gas resources. This should be guided by a forward-thinking regulatory framework that prioritizes regularly scheduled lease sales as necessary to enhance U.S. energy security and maintain America’s position as a global energy superpower.
New U.S. Energy Course Starts Offshore
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Mark Green
Posted December 21, 2016
Let’s Advance a True All-of-the-Above Energy Strategy
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Mark Green
Posted November 21, 2016
Energy From Arctic, Alaska Critical to U.S. Security
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Mark Green
Posted October 12, 2016
Last week’s discovery of 6 billion barrels of oil in Alaska’s Smith Bay, which would increase the state’s reserves 80 percent, underscores the need for the United States to continue safe development of its Arctic resources.
Keep Arctic in U.S. Offshore Leasing Plan
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Mark Green
Posted June 30, 2016
Thanks to America’s shale energy revolution, the United States is the world’s leading producer of oil and natural gas. The revolution has generated economic lift, increased American security in the world and benefited U.S. trade. Surging natural gas production and use is the main reason the U.S. leads the world in reducing carbon emissions.
These are all great developments for U.S. energy and for our country in general. And Americans recognize it, 73 percent of registered voters in a recent Harris Poll saying they support a national energy policy that ensures safe and responsible development of a secure supply of abundant, affordable and available energy. To get there you must have arobust, forward-looking U.S. offshore oil and natural gas leasing program. Access to domestic energy reserves is fundamental to domestic energy production.
Unfortunately, the next five-year leasing program now being written by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) falls short in the vigor and vision departments.
America Needs Forward-Looking Offshore Energy Plan
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Mark Green
Posted May 20, 2016
Near year’s end the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is scheduled to release its offshore oil and natural gas leasing program for 2017-2022.
For more than a year BOEM has methodically worked to craft a program that will blueprint offshore development into the next decade and beyond, developing drafts, receiving comments from the public as well as inputs from elected officials in affected states.
With the United States emerging as the world’s leading producer of oil and natural gas, planning America’s offshore oil and gas development has never been more important. The United States must have an offshore oil and natural gas program that reflects America’s energy superpower status.
Getting the Offshore Drilling Program Right
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Mark Green
Posted May 11, 2016
Some points for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to consider when it meets next week to review the Obama administration’s proposed 2017-2022 program for offshore oil and natural gas leasing.
First, offshore oil and natural gas production historically has played a major role in overall U.S. energy output. In 2010 more than 30 percent of U.S. oil and 11 percent of U.S. natural gas was produced in the Gulf of Mexico. So, while it’s great that the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that Gulf production will increase to record high levels in 2017, every American must recognize that reaching record Gulf output next year would result because of leasing decisions made a decade or more ago.
In that context, let’s be clear: The federal offshore leasing program must reflect energy leadership and vision, and it must be focused on fostering opportunity. It must not reduce America’s offshore energy potential by keeping key offshore areas off the table for development.
Planning, Leadership Needed to Harness U.S. Offshore Energy
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Mark Green
Posted April 27, 2016
BOEM’s DC meeting that followed others this month in New Orleans, Houston and a number of localities in Alaska, was an information smorgasbord. They had a video overview of the methodology in developing the leasing program that will guide offshore energy development from 2017 to 2022. They also had a number of tables with printed handouts, where BOEM staffers were available to talk about topics ranging from protected species to the human environment to acoustics in the water.
I asked a staffer if it was possible that someone knowing little to nothing about offshore energy and leasing could wander into BOEM’s meeting, watch the video, absorb the information handouts, talk to BOEM representatives and then submit an informed comment on the leasing proposal. “Yes,” he said. Neat.
BOEM had a number of laptops set up to receive electronic comments. I submitted mine the old-fashioned way, writing them out longhand on a form. I labored to print legibly.
Certainly, BOEM has been meticulous in developing its proposed leasing program. The final version that will come out early next year will say a lot about U.S. energy leadership and vision and the future of American energy. That’s how critically important our offshore reserves are.
