Douglas Alexander: “I have enjoyed hearing my distinguished friend from Oregon, who is always an effective and enthusiastic advocate. We…”

“I have enjoyed hearing my distinguished friend from Oregon, who is always an effective and enthusiastic advocate. We worked together on many things, and I hope we will on many more things in the future. I want to talk a little bit about the price of natural gas and how we can get it down. We have an opportunity to do that next week in the Senate. The Senate is considering the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006. It directs new oil and gas leasing in 8.3 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico. It directs the Department of the Interior to begin oil and gas leasing in designated parts of what we call lease sale 181--that is just the name of a geographic area--no later than 1 year after the bill becomes law, and directs leasing in 181 south, an area below the one just described, as soon as practical. From the revenues that come from that, we will deal with those in the traditional way. First, there is a royalty, and 37.5 percent of the royalty will go to the affected States, which I assume includes Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama, and perhaps the Presiding Officer's State of Texas. Then 12.5 percent will go to the State side of the Land and Water Conservation Fund under an arrangement that has been in the law for 40 years, to take some of the money we use from offshore drilling and use it for State parks, soccer fields, city parks. The money goes to the States. We do a lot of things here in the Senate, and some may sound more relevant than others.…”