NOIA Criticizes House for Voting to Undercut American Energy Security
January 18, 2007
Contact:
Michael Kearns
National Ocean Industries Association
(202) 347-6900
NOIA Criticizes House for Voting to Undercut American Energy Security
WASHINGTON – The National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) today criticized Members of the House of Representatives for passing H.R. 6, saying that the legislation will harm domestic energy production.
NOIA President Tom Fry explained that, “by passing H.R. 6, the House has taken a costly step backward. The tax provisions that were targeted for repeal by this legislation had been put in place specifically to keep our domestic market competitive with foreign countries that offer lower costs of doing business.”
Fry added that, “by voting to repeal those provisions through H.R. 6, the Congress is raising the cost of doing business here at home. This may have the effect of encouraging industry to move its investment to other countries, taking with it tens of billions of dollars in capital and hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
Addressing the specific question of royalty revenues, Fry commented that, “in addition, H.R.6 contains provisions that would penalize companies for the government’s failure to include optional price thresholds for royalty relief, even as many of those companies have already come to renegotiate those leases of their own volition. Such measures leave the impression that the United States government does not honor its contracts and simply changes the rules as it goes. Yesterday’s Washington Post editorial page summed up the situation accurately: ‘The main problem with the House bill is that hitting up oil companies is a poor substitute for a real energy policy.’”
NOIA encourages the Senate to correct the mistakes made by the House in passing H.R. 6.
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NOIA is the only national trade association representing all segments of the offshore industry with an interest in the exploration and production of energy resources on the nation’s outer continental shelf. The NOIA membership comprises more than 300 companies engaged in business activities ranging from producing to drilling, engineering to marine and air transport, offshore construction to equipment manufacture and supply, telecommunications to finance and insurance.
