Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu is calling on the Obama administration’s nominee for Interior Secretary to support a bigger share of oil and gas revenue to coastal states.
At a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Landrieu told nominee Sally Jewell that offshore drilling along the Gulf Coast accounts for three times the production onshore in western and interior states.
“Of those amounts — although it’s three times more for the offshore — $30 billion of the $61 [billion] has been maintained by the western states and the interior states, and only a few million dollars has come back to the coastal states.”
Jewell says if confirmed as Interior Secretary, she would work with lawmakers from all states involved before changing revenue-sharing plans.
She also says she supports expanding oil and gas development on public land and waters.