With oil leasing now planned for waters off the East Coast, Alaska has new allies in its long-running campaign to claim a share of revenues from future oil production in federal offshore territory, Gov. Bill Walker said Tuesday, fresh from a trip to Washington, D.C.
Like Alaska, the East Coast states adjacent to federal waters where leasing is now planned would get none of the royalty and tax revenue from oil produced there, Walker pointed out at a news conference upon returning from the National Governors Association winter meeting. And like Alaska, the East Coast states have political leaders who would like to expand revenue sharing to include them, he said.
“Their revenue sharing opportunity is zero percent, the same as ours. So suddenly they’re very concerned about that,” said Walker, who used his news conference to recap his third official trip to Washington.
Under the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006, states on the Gulf of Mexico get up to 37.5 percent of royalties from oil and gas production in federal outer continental shelf waters. Such revenue-sharing from production is limited to the Gulf of Mexico region, site of almost all federal outer continental shelf oil and gas activity.
The lack of any provision for sharing federal revenues from offshore oil production outside the Gulf of Mexico has been “a lonesome frustration” for Alaska, he said. “Now more states will weigh in,” he said.
To help solidify the alliance, Walker said, he has directed the state to join the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition, a group formed in 2011 and currently chaired by the governor of North Carolina.
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image credit Loren Holmes ADN
