COM 0852.000 1996-1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

APB-30-98 THU 1:41 PI[ KAUAI COUNTY CLERK FAY NO. 1 808 2416349 P. 6 NACo Environment. Energy, and Land Use Steering Committee February 28. 1998 Page 2 ( Federal "Ta inas" Lealsletian NACo is opposed to the proposed Congressional bill on takings, which plans to allow parties access to Federal courts by a more restrictive definition of 'exhaustion of administrative remedies" at State and local levels. This would have the impact of over- - - riding local zoning efforts to resolve takings issues (Please refer to attached NACo resolution for position on "takingsl. off or 'atUraI a 8 Petrol um Ddllina in the GUlf of Mexico The Environment, Energy, and Land Use Steering Committee of NACo also heard from Senator Mary Landrieu (D-Loulslana) regarding her proposed legislation on new regulations for off-shore petroleum and natural gas drilling In the Gulf of Mexico. Recently, the-Gulf-of Mexico has become the area of choice for new off-shore petroleum and natural gas drilling companies, as improved technology has resulted in better yields. An estimated 5120 billion worth of resources have been taken out from the Gulf since 1955 - no State or County has shared in these earnings. Local coastal parishes have received a very small share in these revenues, while the Federal Government has received the largest amount from these activities. As there are 35 coastal states (not including all territories) in the U.SA, the Federal Government is being asked to mandate that off-shore drilling companies share a percentage of these revenues with local governments. These additional funds would be utilized for environmental. mitigation and Improvement of infrastructure, such as a set percentage set aside for landtwater conservation funds. Senator Landrieu's proposed bill would call for sharing 27% of revenues with all 50 states, whether off-shore wells are located there or not. Another 23% would go to the coastal States to finance landtwater conservation funds. As this Is a resource with a 15- year to 20-year resource timeframe, it estimated that $1 billion annually would be -avsilBblE"frtSrrf-ttoa--proposaf.---•- - Senator Landrieu noted that there would be "no impact on off-share drilling companies existing leases, as no extra monies would be involved; this Is not a 'tax" proposal, but a "shared revenues' proposal. It is a proposal to deal with Impacts on non-renewable resources, which is committed to dealing with the issue by re-directing a portion of off- shore drilling revenues to new research in the area of renewable energy resources. Even if a coastal State (such as Hawaii) does not have off-drilling activities, funds could be used for such mitigation efforts as beach restoration. It was noted that such revenue sharing already occurs for some interior States with coal, silver, or iron mining activities; coastal as portion of toff-shoe drilling pre revenues by requirements contained n~their Statehood~Act.