SPI Supports Senate's Natural Gas Expoloration Bill

The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. (SPI) has issues a press release in support of the Senate vote to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

On Tuesday, Aug. 1, the Senate passed S. 3711, the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, which opens 8.3 million acres of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling, by a vote of 71 to 25.

The bill, which Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) sponsored, would include a 125-mile buffer off the Florida coast in the Gulf of Mexico. Fifty percent of lease revenues would go to the General Treasury; 37.5 percent would got to coastal protection of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas; and 12.5 percent would go to the Land and Water Conservation fund.

The Senate bill must be reconciled with House bill H.R 4761, passed in June, that would open even more of the Gulf of Mexico to drilling.

“While it’s not all that the U.S. plastics industry has hoped for, the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act will increase access to natural gas resources and offer a short-term solution to the supply-demand imbalance that has resulted in skyrocketing natural gas prices,” William R. Carteaux, president and CEO of SPI, says.

“SPI, along with our members across the country, will now turn its attention to working with Congress toward speedy reconciliation between the House and Senate proposals so that access to new sources of natural gas can become a reality,” Carteaux adds.