Republicans question offshore wind’s reliability, impacts

A hearing Wednesday featured tense exchanges between House Republicans and a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management official.

House Natural Resources Republicans harangued an Interior Department official Wednesday over whether offshore wind is a reliable source of energy off the nation's coasts.

One of several hearings on the House GOP's “energy week” agenda, the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee meeting explored a wide range of complaints about the Biden administration’s push for offshore wind power — and that industry's environmental impacts — while also lambasting the White House for not understanding the importance of fossil fuel development offshore.

“If we have 40 to 50 percent of the time that we can rely upon [offshore wind] energy, some quick math tells us that that means 50 percent of the time, we cannot rely on that energy," Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) told Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Deputy Director Walter Cruickshank in a tense exchange.

Cruikshank said, "I am not concerned. Offshore wind has a long track record globally. It’s been producing energy for over 30 years and been doing so successfully."

Rosendale also asked if BOEM had done any research on offshore wind’s environmental impacts, a nod to Republican arguments that the new industry could impact whales and other marine life.

The deputy director responded that the bureau has put “tens of millions of dollars” into that kind of research. A relatively small Interior agency that oversees both offshore wind and offshore oil leasing, BOEM’s largest budget tranche is devoted to its offshore environmental program.

Seth Magaziner, a Democrat from Rhode Island, where several offshore wind projects are in development, noted BOEM’s need to balance offshore wind development with marine protections. But he also criticized Republicans for unequal concern for offshore wind impacts versus oil.

"Some of my colleagues don't seem to care very much about impacts on marine life when we're talking about offshore oil and gas, only when we're talking about offshore wind," Magaziner said.

Subcommittee Chair Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) did not attend the hearing but was critical of BOEM’s estimates of offshore oil and gas in a Wednesday statement.

"The United States is blessed with significant oil and gas reserves, yet the full extent of these resources remains partially untapped and, in some cases, inadequately understood,” he said.

BOEM is responsible for releasing an assessment every five years of how much crude oil and natural gas could be tapped from the outer continental shelf.

Cruickshank reported during the hearing that BOEM had gotten better at estimating how much undiscovered oil and gas was considered recoverable by industry’s current technology and expertise. As a result, BOEM’s most recent estimate for tappable crude oil was 23 percent lower than a 2018 estimate. Its estimate of undiscovered, technically recoverable gas was down by 30 percent.

“The overall decrease reflects recent exploration results and is due in part to improvements in BOEM’s assessment practices,” he said. “These advances have allowed BOEM to generate a clearer picture of the OCS subsurface geology, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Cruickshank also testified Wednesday that offshore oil and gas producers will have access to much of the Gulf of Mexico in upcoming oil auctions.

The bureau released a historically small five-year offshore oil program this winter that's been attacked by Republican lawmakers for only offering three lease sales. This year is the first since 1966 that the U.S. will not hold an offshore oil auction.

Rep. Garret Graves, a Republican from Louisiana, said the Biden administration has thwarted federal oil and gas development with policies like reduced leasing that will lead to more reliance on foreign suppliers of fossil fuels, with potentially higher carbon footprints.

“Oil and gas demand globally is going to be increasing over the next few decades. It is baffling to me, baffling to me, why we would actually stop or shut down energy sources,” he said.

Amir Zaman, partner at the energy analysis firm Rystad Energy, testified that offshore oil and gas could have a role to play in keeping U.S. energy production from falling as the nation’s onshore shale fields peter out.

Zaman said the inventory of potential new shale wells in the U.S. “shrinks every single day,” with estimates of its eventual decline ranging from two years to two decades away.

Kendall Dix, the national policy director for environmental group Taproot Earth, told lawmakers that continued fossil fuel reliance in the Gulf of Mexico — where most offshore oil and gas is development — will keep that region of the country as a sacrifice zone.

"I'm tired and frustrated that somebody from the climate and environmental world is again being asked to convince you that oil and gas extraction is harming people and the planet," he said.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) panned the Wednesday meeting as a “rehashing” of talking points about fossil fuels and slammed House Republicans' "energy week" as “performative cheerleading for the fossil fuel industry.”

By:  Heather Richards
Source: E&E Daily

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