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Times-Picayune (New Orleans) 7/19/00
OFFSHORE ROYALTIES BILL UP FOR KEY VOTE
OPPONENTS SAY LEGISLATION TOO GENEROUS TO LA.
By Bruce Alpert, Washington bureau/The Times-Picayune
www.nolalive.com/t-p/?/t-p/national/0007190031.htmlWASHINGTON - A report commissioned by opponents of legislation that would redirect federal offshore oil and gas royalties to a host of environmental programs says the bill is too generous to Louisiana and that offshore drilling is only a minor cause of wetland loss in the state. Supporters of the Conservation and Reinvestment Act quickly labeled the report as a biased attempt to derail the bill and cited studies that have attributed almost a third of Louisiana's wetland loss to drilling and associated activity.
--- Setting up a block ---
Release of the report by an Alaskan engineering firm on behalf of the American Land Rights Association came as the association and other opponents stepped up efforts to block the bill, scheduled for a key vote by the Senate Energy Committee today. Another bill opponent, the League of Private Property Voters, wrote members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee this week, warning that it would be "scoring" their votes on the legislation and the many amendments expected to be offered in the Energy Committee for the "annual Congressional Vote index" it distributes to voters. Property rights groups, mostly representing large land owners in Western states, have fought the proposed legislation in the House and Senate, arguing that it would trample on their rights by adding significantly to already huge federal land holdings. The Energy Committee postponed a session on the bill Tuesday because of a scheduling conflict with votes on the Senate floor. Still, supporters led by sponsor Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said they remain optimistic that they have the votes to approve the bill during today's session and send it on to the full Senate.
--- Bill's benefits ---
The legislation would generate nearly $3 billion per year for environmental, conservation, urban and rural park projects and historic preservation efforts. It would provide $170 million per year for Louisiana, mostly for coastal restoration. But R.A. Kreig & Associates of Anchorage, in its report on behalf of the American Land Rights Association, said Louisiana is overstating its claims to money for wetlands loss attributable to offshore oil and gas exploration. The report doesn't dispute claims by the bill's supporters that Louisiana is losing 25 to 35 square miles of wetlands every year. But it said only about 15 percent of the losses can be blamed on drilling off the Outer Continental Shelf, attributing much more of the blame to levee projects financed by Congress that have robbed the Mississippi River delta of crucial sediment. "The OCS's remaining potential obligations of the cost to restore the wetlands, after taking into account past and future revenue payments to the state, is none to at most $16 million per year," the report says.
--- Launching counterattack ---
The report's findings were quickly attacked by supporters of the legislation. "This is a national treasure that we are losing in Louisiana, and while there may be mixed causes for the loss, there is no question that the federal government should be helping more with restoration efforts," said Jack Caldwell, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. Ken Johnson, spokesman for Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-Chackbay, a sponsor of the House version, called the report "just another smoke screen" designed to try to scuttle the bill's enactment. "No other state is suffering so much from coastal erosion. No other state is home to more endangered species. And no other state has been ignored so much by the federal government in comparison to its contributions," Johnson said. Given that "Louisiana coastal waters have contributed, over the years, more than $90 billion to the federal treasury, anyone who says we are entitled to no more than $16 million a year needs to retake Arithmetic 101," Johnson said.
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