Houston, TX, U.S., Dec. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The EnerGeo Alliance today issued the following statement from by President Nikki Martin thanking Congress for passing important language in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) designed to break a logjam in energy permitting the U.S. and the world desperately need to address the global energy crisis.
“The NDAA includes language that urges the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to move immediately to end a permitting backlog that it admitted causing and has been aware of for many months, stopping ordinary geoscience surveying required for existing federal offshore leases to be carried out,” Martin said. “We thank the Senate and House for recognizing the security implications of ensuring an ample energy supply by adding this important language. NMFS must act to ensure America can get back to producing the energy the world needs by ending the unnecessary bureaucratic delays the agency and Biden Administration have appeared unwilling to fix.”
Letters of Authorization allowing ordinary geoscience survey work to be carried out has been inordinately delayed for months, as a consequence of the NMFS mathematical error that resulted in an overestimate of the potential impact of activity. Permits that used to take 2-4 weeks are now taking 100 days or more. Repeated letters from Senator Joe Manchin and others to the Biden Administration urging NMFS to act have fallen on deaf ears.
“We urge NMFS to act expeditiously as Congress has deemed fit. Further delays stemming from this known mathematical mistake will hurt the environment by reducing output from the Gulf of Mexico, which has the world’s lowest carbon intensity after only the North Sea,” Martin said. “Geoscience activities in the United States are tightly regulated to ensure environmental protection during the course of projects. Permitting inaction will also impact the geoscience work and data required to advance offshore wind projects in newly minted lease areas in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico delaying the nation’s progress to a net zero future.”
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About the EnerGeo Alliance
Founded in 1971, the EnerGeo Alliance is a global trade association for the energy geoscience industry, the intersection where earth science and energy meet. The EnerGeo Alliance and its member companies span more than 50 countries, and together, unify to open the gateway to the safe discovery, development, and delivery of mainstay sources of energy, alternative energy and low-carbon energy solutions that meet our growing world’s needs.
