EnerGeo Alliance Testified in Support of the Comprehensive Offshore Resource Evaluation Act (CORE Act)
2024年7月24日 - 1:30AM
Today, Dustin Van Liew testified on behalf of EnerGeo Alliance
before the U.S. House of Representatives, highlighting the critical
role that energy geoscience plays in contributing to resource
evaluation: “By conducting surveys that image the subsurface below
the ocean floor, geoscience surveys provide the information
governments and policymakers need to make informed decisions in the
best interest of their citizens regarding accessing and developing
energy sources of all types, as well as developing low-carbon
strategies.”
“Unfortunately, the permitting of this activity, critical to
identifying the nation's energy supplies, is too often stalled
within regulatory agencies without accountable deadlines or
timelines for review, or impeded by extreme environmental advocacy
organizations exploiting existing regulatory and litigation
processes,” he highlighted. To stimulate new geoscience activity
and better inform the country’s energy policy, Van Liew recommended
that policymakers prioritize “geoscience-driven energy policies and
regulatory frameworks that remove uncertainty and delay, promote
timely permitting decisions, and support a quick pace of return on
investment.”
In his testimony on behalf of EnerGeo Alliance, Dustin Van Liew
also pinpointed the necessity of modernizing the Outer Continental
Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) -
particularly regarding the Incidental Take Regulation (ITR), and
other relevant statutes to rectify the existing delays for
geoscience survey authorizations: “In Alaska, unnecessary and
unexplained delays in processing MMPA authorizations prevent
planned geoscience surveys from providing the timely insight that
would update resource estimates.”
Congressman Wesley Hunt’s CORE Act is a major step in the right
direction, and EnerGeo confirmed its support for the draft bill, as
it “will advance responsible and sustainable energy exploration and
production, [...] support the nation's energy goals [...] and
remove onerous procedural roadblocks and litigious obstacles that
hinder domestic energy security goals.”
Van Liew also provided comments on the proposed language for
specific items, including eliminating “the arbitrary five-year
limit on ITRs and instead allowing for the targeted amendment of
ITRs, as necessary, to update mitigation measures or other
findings, based on the best available scientific information.
Eliminating the arbitrary five-year limit will also help to
decrease opportunities for advocacy groups to challenge ITRs in
misguided attempts to prevent U.S. energy development. [...] For
the same reasons, EnerGeo supports removing the existing GOM ITR
expiration date of April 19, 2026. By prolonging the period of
effectiveness, the geoscience and exploration industry can continue
to make long-term plans for meaningful geoscience surveys that will
inform forward-looking policies and help diversify energy
sources.”
EnerGeo also welcomed the language to streamline the
authorization process for survey operators after ITRs are issued:
“[...] the current regulatory framework requires NMFS to jump
through an additional procedural hoop and issue Letters of
Authorizations (LOAs) to survey operators before they can move
forward with the geoscience activities described and analyzed in
their respective ITRs. Subsection 4(c) [...] offers a more
pragmatic and beneficial approach that both conserves agency
resources and maintains the integrity of the substantive mitigation
and monitoring requirements to remain in compliance with the MMPA
and the Endangered Species Act.”
“We strongly support the proposed legislation, - concluded
Dustin Van Liew - which will help to ensure more rigorous and
comprehensive assessments of U.S. energy supplies and a more
efficient and predictable process for permitting geoscience
surveys. The energy geoscience and exploration industry stands
ready to partner in the discovery and development of low carbon
solutions and of energy dense, low emissions sources of energy to
power the world. Streamlining the permitting process along with
reducing the ability for outside special interest groups to
obstruct energy geoscience exploration is a necessary step to
ensure our continued development of energy resources and low-carbon
solutions for future generations in the U.S.”
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About EnerGeo AllianceFounded in 1971, EnerGeo Alliance
is a global trade alliance for the energy geoscience industry, the
intersection where earth science and energy meet. The EnerGeo
Alliance and its member companies span more than 50 countries, and
together, unify to open the gateway to the safe discovery,
development, and delivery of mainstay sources of energy,
alternative energy and low-carbon energy solutions that meet our
growing world’s needs.
Michela Fumagalli
EnerGeo Alliance
713-584-3391
mfumagalli@energeoalliance.org