Description:
As ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on May 17, 2012
H.R. 4480 would direct the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a plan to increase the amount of acreage leased for oil and gas development on federal lands if the department sells oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). DOE would be required to develop that plan within 180 days after the first sale of oil from the SPR that occurs after the bill is enacted, with a goal of increasing the acreage under lease by the percentage change in the size of the SPR resulting from the sale. This one-time plan would be developed in consultation with certain federal and nonfederal entities and would be implemented by agencies responsible for managing federal lands, including the Departments of the Interior (DOI), Agriculture, and Defense. We estimate that implementing the bill would have negligible discretionary costs over the 2013-2017 period.
Pay-as-you-go procedures apply to this legislation because it could affect offsetting receipts from oil and gas leasing, which are recorded as a credit against direct spending. CBO estimates, however, that the net effect on direct spending would be insignificant over the 2013-2022 period. Enacting H.R. 4480 would not affect revenues.
H.R. 4480 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
