Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is touting last week’s oil-and-gas land lease sale—the first to take place during the Biden administration—saying it could deliver $100 million to the state in the next year.
According to The Center Square, the funding estimate is based on past lease sales and will come from revenue sharing measures contained in the Gulf of Mexico Security Act, according to the attorney general’s office.
Louisiana, along with Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, is eligible for three separate revenue streams: bonus payments when the lease commences, ground rent and royalties.
The funds also are used for coastal conservation, restoration and hurricane protection, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Landry led a coalition of 13 states that sued the administration after President Joe Biden suspended new leases for oil-and-gas drilling and fracking on federal lands and waters upon taking office in January. A federal judge sided with Landry in June, allowing lease sales to continue while the issue remains in litigation.
BOEM, an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, conducted Lease Sale 257 in New Orleans on Wednesday. The sale included about 15,135 unleased blocks of public land located 3 to 231 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaking outside the event, Landry told reporters, “It’s not enough. We need a five-year lease plan.” Read the full story.
