October 9, 1974
Page 34680
SENATE RESOLUTION 426 – SUBMISSION OF A RESOLUTION WITH RESPECT TO THE GRANTING OF CERTAIN OIL AND GAS LEASES PURSUANT TO THE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF LANDS ACT
Mr. TUNNEY. Mr. President, I present at the desk a resolution which is cosponsored by 23 of my colleagues. This resolution expresses the sense of the Senate that greater care must be taken in the program to lease our offshore areas for oil and gas development.
Our offshore areas possess considerable mineral resources. These resources must be tapped to assist in meeting our energy needs. But these marine and coastal areas which will be affected by offshore drilling also have other uses, and need to be protected from uncontrolled and rapacious development.
The Congress passed the Coastal Zone Management Act just 2 years ago, providing Federal assistance to States to develop mandatory coastal management plans. These plans are a vital step to allow coastal States to protect ecologically fragile areas, like tidelands and marshes, and to rationalize the industrial and other impacts of offshore drilling, if it occurs, upon the coastal zone.
Therefore, my colleagues and I are very concerned with present plans to make a vast increase in offshore leasing in the next year. The coastal States are not prepared for the impacts of this leasing – particularly the States where no drilling has yet occurred.
There are serious questions about the feasibility and wisdom of the 10-million-acre leasing program, which have been raised in hearings just this week.
Mr. President, when the Interior Department's plans for setting up a "firm" leasing schedule of 10 million acres in 1975 were revealed, 20 Senators wrote a letter to President Ford asking that the administration exercise restraint in offshore leasing until more progress is made in completing environmental baseline studies, and developing State coastal management plans.
This resolution would express the sense of the Senate on these same points that were contained in the letter to the President.
The resolution will say that the Interior Department should follow certain criteria before leasing new areas in the Outer Continental Shelf–
First, all environmental studies required by the Council on Environmental Quality should be completed and reviewed;
Second, States should complete or make reasonable progress toward completing their coastal management plans, with the Secretary of Commerce to certify that progress is being made; and
Third, the Secretary of the Interior should justify the 10-million-acre leasing plan before the appropriate committees of Congress, and answer the questions which have been raised. This should include, in my opinion, the Interior, Commerce, and Appropriations Committees in the Senate, and the equivalent committees in the House.
Mr. President, I repeat that this is not a question of cutting off all drilling activities. We know that this is not good policy, despite the calls of some people to do so. But we are concerned that no single policy objective, as important as it is, should overwhelm all other competing policies which our Nation is committed to. Offshore development must be deliberate, and consistent with coastal management objectives of the States.
It must be safe, and every effort must be taken to assure that environmental dangers are foreseen and protected against. Only the most extraordinary efforts in this context will give reassurance to the millions of people in the coastal States that offshore drilling is in their interest.
Finally, we must get far better assurance than we now have that the Government will get fair value for its leases. The vast lack of information about the specifics of the resource potential in the Outer Continental Shelf means that oil companies stand a good chance to rip off the Treasury.
Mr. President, and my colleagues, the purpose of this resolution is to urge caution. I think this expression on the part of the Senate will help insure that as our energy policies are made, they take adequate account of the other concerns of our Nation. I am confident that such a deliberate approach will both achieve our energy goals, and prevent disruption of our coastal zones and the attendant acrimonious reaction of millions of people who live in them.
Mr. President, we held hearings in the Commerce Committee in California recently with respect to the leasing of offshore acreage, and we learned from the Department of the Interior that they were not planning to undertake a leasing program until the environmental baseline studies were completed, until the environmental impact statements were completed. But they did not give, of course, any indication that they were going to wait until such time as coastal management plans had been completed by the State.
However, subsequent to those hearings we learned from a newspaper story which, in fact, was accurate, that an internal memorandum had been initialed by Mr. Whitaker, the Under Secretary
of the Interior, indicating that the Under Secretary wanted 10 million acres to be leased in 1975.
Now, this was quite different from the testimony that had been given by the Department of the Interior to the Commerce Committee at our hearings in California. The interesting thing is that the man who gave the testimony in California indicated that he was speaking in a policy position for the Department, and this internal memorandum from Secretary Whitaker had been published approximately a week before the hearings. So that led some of us to believe that either the high department witness before our hearings did not know what he was talking about, had not been informed about these high policy issues or, being so informed, purposefully misled our committee.
I do not think it is important at this point to get into the factual question of whether he was misinformed or purposely misled the committee, but the fact simply is that there are many Senators – as a matter of fact, a quarter of the entire body – who were very deeply concerned that the Department of the Interior is moving ahead rapidly on a leasing program having already made the decision to lease 10 million acres without taking into consideration the environmental impact on the coastal areas, and what is going to happen insofar as the infrastructure development on shore adjacent to these development zones.
We feel very strongly that there has got to be full consideration not only of the quality of life of citizens living onshore, but also the environmental impact on the coastal regions.
So it is for this reason that the 24 of us have introduced at the desk this resolution and I would ask unanimous consent, Mr. President, to insert in the RECORD the text of the resolution and the text of the letter sent Monday by a group of several Senators to President Ford relating to the same matter.
There being no objection, the resolution and letter were ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
S. RES. 426
Resolution expressing the sense of the Senate with respect to the granting of certain oil and gas leases pursuant to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
Whereas, the energy potential of the United States Outer Continental Shelf resources is potentially of great value and their proper development is a matter of high priority to the nation, and
Whereas, the development of Outer Continental Shelf resources may pose conflicting pressures on coastal and marine regions currently being used for other important purposes, including recreation and fishing; and
Whereas, improperly located pipelines, refineries, and other growth attendant to development of the Outer Continental Shelf could have a severe and adverse impact en the fragile and valuable Coastal Zones and marine habitats of the coastal states, and
Whereas, the Congress, through the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, declared it is the responsibility of all Federal agencies engaged in programs affecting the Coastal Zone to cooperate and participate with state and local governments and regional agencies in assisting in the establishment of coastal zone management programs, and
Whereas, the key to effective development and use of the resources of the coastal zone, including the Outer Continental Shelf, is a balanced approach to national needs, taking into consideration the views and concerns of the coastal States,
whereas, the Congress has not completed action on the Energy Supply Act of 1974 (S. 3221) which modernizes procedures for the Department of the Interior to follow in leasing offshore areas, and which provides for greater consultation with State and local governments in preparing the leasing program; and
Whereas, serious questions have been raised about the necessity and feasibility of leasing programs of 10 million acres in 1975, including leasing in frontier areas, and
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the Secretary of the Interior shall offer oil and gas leases pursuant to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act only in accordance with the following criteria:
(1) The Council on Environmental Quality, with the concurrence of the Review Panel of the National Academy of Sciences, has specified and evaluated all necessary environmental research for any areas to be leased;
(2) The adjacent coastal State or States have established Coastal Zone Management programs or have been deemed by the Secretary of Commerce to be making reasonable progress toward completion of such programs to prevent or ameliorate environmental and socio-economic impacts from activities resulting from leasing; and
(3) the Secretary has provided justification to the appropriate Committees of Congress that any lease sales aimed at a target of 10 million acres per year will not interfere with necessary protection of the environment or with state coastal management planning, will be feasible from the standpoint of capital, materials and manpower, and will result in fair return to the United States Government.
U.S. SENATE,
Washington, D.C.,
October 7,1974.
The PRESIDENT,
The White House,
Washington, D.C.
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: We wish to express our surprise and dismay on learning that the Department of Interior is proceeding toward the 1975 leasing of 10 million acres for offshore oil and gas development – including acreage in the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Gulf of Alaska – at a time when environmental baseline studies and state coastal zone management efforts are at a very early stage.
We recognize and support the need to expedite development of the nation's domestic energy resources, including outer continental shelf oil and gas, but we have not been informed of any factual basis for Interior's judgment that 10 million acres in 1975 is the magic number needed by the nation. Moreover, we do not believe it wise to lease in hitherto undeveloped areas before environmental and coastal planning needs are met.
We are particularly concerned that the Interior leasing program is moving ahead with apparent disregard for the inter-agency effort to gather environmental baseline data on the proposed new areas, and similar disregard for state efforts to develop coastal zone management programs in accordance with the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972.
We have serious doubts about the oil and gas industries' financial and technical capability to develop such a large number of acres in a single year, and about the rational basis for selecting this level of leasing as appropriate or necessary for the nation's energy needs. We understand that the Department of Interior is in the early preparatory stages of an environmental impact statement on the 10-million acre program, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
Hopefully, the Interior Department EIS will set forth the rationale behind the program. It seems most untimely, therefore, for lease sales to be planned before the completion of environmental impact studies or the determination of whether 10 million acres is a realistic or reasonable level for 1975 leasing.
The Senate recently passed S. 3221, the Energy Supply Act of 1974, which provides for several notable improvements in OCS leasing policies and practices. However, the House of Representatives has not yet acted on OCS legislation, and the deliberations of both Houses are expected to continue into the next Congress. We believe that OCS leasing in new areas should await the outcome of that legislative process.
The National Ocean Policy Study of the Senate is currently analyzing OCS issues. Preliminary analysis by the Study supports our belief that offshore leasing programs should proceed only as rapidly as the state and federal programs for coastal planning and environmental data gathering can proceed.
You will recall that the Council on Environmental Quality, in reporting to former President Nixon on its environmental assessment of OCS oil and gas in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Alaska, stated several principles which should guide federal leasing programs. These principles included:
A policy of "very high priority on environmental protection" in regard to OCS exploration and development;
A leasing program in which the location and phases of lease sales are "designed to achieve the energy supply objectives ... at a minimum environmental risk";
Use of the "best commercially available technology ... to minimize environmental risk"
Federal regulations for environmental protection that are "fully implemented and requirements strictly enforced";
Federal consultation with state and local authorities to provide affected areas with "complete information as early as possible so that planning can precede and channel the inevitable development pressures";
A "major advisory role" for the interested public in OCS management and regulation.
We suggest, Mr. President, that unless given higher federal priority, environmental and coastal planning measures cannot possibly be fully implemented in time for 1975 leasing in all new areas of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Alaska, and premature leasing in these new areas cannot possibly adhere to the principle of expanding energy supplies with minimum environmental risk.
We urge you to revise the federal leasing program to ensure the concurrent progress of environmental baseline studies, impact assessment, and federal assistance to state coastal zone management programs. The 1975 program should, in our view, also await a factual justification for leasing 10 million acres, some in new areas, including a determination that the oil and gas industries can cope with this high level of development.
When leasing does take place in new areas, we believe the areas chosen should reflect the results of environmental studies, and should begin with those areas found to hold the lowest level of risk to the marine and coastal environments. If we are to avoid undue delay in developing the outer continental shelf, we must step up federal funding of environmental baseline studies and federal assistance to coastal states as they develop their coastal zone management programs. This way, the OCS leasing program will clearly conform to the findings of the CEQ study, the views of the coastal states many of us represent, and the spirit of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, which requires federal programs affecting the coastal zones to be consistent with state coastal zone management programs.
We were most heartened by your inaugural address to the Congress, in which you expressed your desire to build a good marriage with Congress and work together to solve the critical problems before us. We applaud your sincerity and we certainly share your goal. For this reason, we urge you to make it possible for us to work together toward a rational policy for development of the outer continental shelf. The Interior Department's unilateral decision to go ahead with a hasty and ill-conceived 1975 leasing schedule at this time represents a serious impediment to our cooperative efforts. We hope you will heed and share our views on this vital matter.
Sincerely yours,
Ernest F. Hollings, Edward M. Kennedy, Edward W. Brooke, Alan Cranston, Mark O. Hatfield, Charles McC. Mathias, Jr., Claiborne Pell, Clifford P. Case, Harrison A. Williams, Jr., Lawton Chiles, William D. Hathaway, Edmund S. Muskie, Jacob K. Javits, John V. Tunney, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Thomas J. McIntyre, John O. Pastore, Bob Packwood, Hubert H. Humphrey.
Mr. TUNNEY. Mr. President, I ask immediate consideration of the resolution.
Mr. HANSEN. Mr. President, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection having been heard, the resolution will go over under the rule.