Alaska Oil and Gas Leasing – Passage

Passage of the bill that would that would repeal existing law authorizing an Interior Department program for the leasing, development, and transportation of oil and gas in and from the coastal plane of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It would also require the Interior Department to collect inspection fees from certain oil and gas facilities operating on the outer Continental Shelf and set annual levels and schedules for fees collected from facilities above the waterline, drilling rigs, and non-rig units. Such fees would be deposited into a Treasury Department ocean energy safety fund established under the bill's provisions, with funds to be made available through annual appropriations acts to carry out inspections of outer Continental Shelf facilities.