New Orleans Times-Picayune
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy's bill dropping Biden drilling rule heads to Trump's desk
BY MARK BALLARD | Staff writer
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House gave final approval on a 221 to 202 vote Thursday to a resolution sponsored by U.S. Sen. John N. Kennedy, R-Madisonville, that lifted an offshore energy production rule rendered during the Biden administration.
The rule required offshore lessees and operators to “submit an archaeological report with any oil and gas exploration or development plan” to drill or lay pipelines.
“I am proud to see that the House passed my resolution to help bring back America’s energy dominance, and I look forward to President (Donald) Trump signing it into law,” Kennedy said in statement.
The Biden administration rule, approved in September, effectively required a survey when reports previously were only necessary if there was a “reason to believe” that sunken ships, submerged settlements or other archaeological findings were on the seafloor.
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Mississippi, co-sponsored the legislation.
“House passage of our resolution of disapproval moves us another step forward in overturning Biden’s regulatory assault on oil and gas production in the Gulf,” she said.
Democrats argued that all the rule did was standardize reporting that most of the energy industry already filed with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, called BOEM.
Actually, said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-California, the rule was to standardize the information on the survey to make it searchable in computerized database programs. The idea was to make the survey easier to fill out for oil and gas concerns, most of whom file the reports as a matter of course, and to provide a way to doublecheck its accuracy. Energy companies must immediately stop drilling should they come across, say, a shipwreck.
Republicans, however, rejected that assessment, arguing that the Biden administration passed the rule as another hurdle to exploring, drilling and producing oil and natural gas in the Gulf. The archaeological rule was one of 225 regulations that increased compliance costs that were particularly onerous for smaller operators, GOP House members argued.
“This is about forcing an extreme agenda,” said Rep. Mike Ezell, R-Mississippi, and sponsor of the House’s companion bill. “They tried to handcuff with red tape, driving up costs, stifling innovation, and making us more dependent on foreign energy.”
Ezell was a police chief in Ocean Springs and sheriff of Jackson County, where many offshore workers live, prior to being elected to Congress in 2022.
“By overturning Biden's BOEM's overreaching rule, we are unleashing our nation’s vast resources,” he added.
“Another win for American energy,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, on Facebook.
Voting for the legislation were all the Republican members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton; Scalise; Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Start; and Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette.
Both Democratic members of the state’s delegation voted against the measure: Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans; and Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge.