| July 12, 2006 - (Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Sen. David Vitter joined U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and other senators representing Gulf Coast states to announce an offshore royalty sharing agreement. This agreement would share billions of dollars in offshore energy revenues with Louisiana and other Gulf States. “This deal will bring us royalty sharing for the first time ever. We will finally get our fair share in Louisiana from the oil and gas activity that we produce in the Gulf of Mexico for the rest of the country,” Vitter said. “Of course, this is vital for us to meet our hurricane protection, coastal restoration and infrastructure needs in the future.” This federal funding will be used in Louisiana for projects such as comprehensive coastal and hurricane protection. In addition, it will create an enormous incentive so that we have more domestic production and we can lessen our dependence on foreign sources of energy. “Royalty sharing was one of my top goals when I came to the U.S. Senate in 2004. This deal goes a long way to meet that goal,” Vitter said. “I want to thank everybody I’ve worked with in the Senate to help produce this agreement, including the Republican leadership and all of the Gulf Coast Senators. I want to thank them all for working over many months to put this package together.” Vitter added, “I am very hopeful that we’ll be able to get this proposal to the Senate floor in July, and very shortly after that the U.S. House of Representatives can take it up so that we can send it to the President’s desk for his signature. I think he would certainly sign this because it would open up very important new areas of the Gulf of Mexico for domestic production.” Click on Adobe icon to read Royalty Sharing Proposal. 
Click here  to listen to Senator Vitter Comment on Oil Royalty Sharing Proposal. |
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