Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today said the Bush administration's plan to have states decide whether drilling can occur in the Outer Continental Shelf will not have a near-term influence on gasoline prices at the pump.

President Bush's said today that he will "lift" a moratorium on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and ask Congress to write a law that gives states the authority to decide if and where drilling can be done. 

"New Mexico is an oil and gas producing state, and I've supported increased production of domestic oil and gas. To that end, I think it makes sense to look at whether or not there are some additional areas in the Outer Continental Shelf that could be opened for production," said Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

But Bingaman pointed out that it's important to understand exactly what President Bush is advocating. He is not calling for additional drilling in the near term. He is simply calling for the federal government to give the states the decision making on whether to drill federal resources, in effect leaving federal energy policy up to governors and state legislatures.

"This is no way to craft a national energy policy," Bingaman said. "These are federal resources. Leaving decisions like this up to states is unprecedented."

Bingaman said there are steps that can be taken to increase domestic oil and gas production that require no Congressional action. He said there are millions of acres outside the Outer Continental Shelf that are scheduled for lease over the next few years that could be leased sooner. And there are areas that are not part of any moratorium that are not currently scheduled for lease that could be made available for drilling.

"The president would have the American people believe that if we just went ahead and passed a law to allow additional areas to be leased, it would bring down the price of gas.  Obviously, there are lots of flaws in that argument. But I think it's clear that there's an awful lot of leasing that this administration could be doing, if they chose to do so, and they have not chosen to do so," Bingaman said.

Bingaman said he remains concerned that there are millions of acres that have been put up for lease but where no production is occurring. He also pointed out that offering up more acres for drilling alone is not the answer. He pointed out that earlier this year 500,000 acres were offered up for lease in the Gulf of Mexico, but oil companies only bid on 200,000 acres.