84R13831 BPG-D

By: Clardy H.C.R. No. 91

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, A provision in President Barack Obama's 2016 federal budget would deprive Texas and three other Gulf Coast states of hundreds of millions of dollars by redirecting funds owed them under the 2006 Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act; and

WHEREAS, The legislation known as GOMESA requires the federal government to share with Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama 37.5 percent of the revenue it collects from offshore oil and gas rigs in the Gulf; in 2013, these rigs produced 17 percent of the nation's 2.7 billion barrels of crude oil; and

WHEREAS, To date, only about $34 million has been distributed under GOMESA, mostly generated by drilling in the eastern Gulf; revenue will increase substantially in a few years as the law begins to cover the far more productive central Gulf, and the White House estimates the value of GOMESA revenue at $367 million for 2018; and

WHEREAS, The GOMESA funds are intended to compensate the states for the environmental impact of offshore drilling, but the president's budget would reallocate payments to a broad range of programs around the country; such a redirection of funds would be particularly inappropriate, given that inland states may keep half of energy revenue produced on federal property, while the states covered by GOMESA are receiving a little more than a third of offshore drilling revenue that affects their coastlines; and

WHEREAS, The Gulf Coast states and neighboring offshore waters have produced hundreds of billions of barrels of oil and tens of trillions of cubic feet of natural gas over the past few decades, but there are environmental costs associated with offshore drilling; bipartisan legislation was passed to allow Texas and the other states to develop appropriate programs concerning natural resources along the Gulf shoreline, such as coastal restoration, and the redistribution of offshore drilling revenue promised under GOMESA would subvert the intention of Congress; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the 84th Legislature of the State of Texas hereby respectfully urge the president of the United States to abandon the budget proposal redirecting offshore drilling revenue due to Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi under the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act; and, be it further

RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.