I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1115 

To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to establish a deadline 

and other requirements for issuance of drilling permits under that Act, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 16, 2011 

Mr. FLORES (for himself, Mr. LANDRY, Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina, Mr. 

GOHMERT, and Mr. CANSECO) introduced the following bill; which was 

referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to establish a deadline and other requirements for issuance of 

drilling permits under that Act, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Expedited Offshore 

5 Permitting Act of 2011’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. DEADLINE AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS FOR 

2 ISSUANCE OF OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF 

3 DRILLING PERMITS. 

4 Section 11(d) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands 

5 Act (43 U.S.C. 1340) is amended by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after 

6 ‘‘(d)’’, and by adding at the end the following: 

7 ‘‘(2)(A) The Secretary shall approve or disapprove 

8 any application for a permit for drilling a well under an 

9 approved exploration or development plan for an oil and 

10 gas lease, or any application to amend a previously ap11 proved permit under such a lease, within 30 days after 

12 its submission, except that the Secretary may disapprove 

13 such application only upon a determination that— 

14 ‘‘(i) any proposed activity under the permit 

15 would result in any condition described in section 

16 5(a)(2)(A)(i); and 

17 ‘‘(ii) such proposed activity cannot be modified 

18 to avoid such condition. 

19 ‘‘(B) The Secretary may request additional informa20 tion from the applicant prior to approving or disapproving 

21 such application, but the request for additional informa22 tion must be received by the applicant within 30 days after 

23 submission of the application to the Secretary. Upon re24 ceipt of the additional information requested by the Sec25 retary, the Secretary shall approve or disapprove the apVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:10 Mar 17, 2011 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1115.IH H1115

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1 plication within 15 days in accordance with this sub2 section. 

3 ‘‘(C) If the Secretary disapproves a permit applica4 tion or an amended permit application pursuant to this 

5 subsection, and there is no other well on areas subject to 

6 the applicable leases capable of production in paying quan7 tities, within 90 days after receipt of a final disapproval 

8 decision all record title holders of any of the applicable 

9 leases may request cancellation of the lease, and within 

10 60 days after receipt of such cancellation request the Sec11 retary shall pay to the record title holders the amount of 

12 any bonus bid paid for such lease plus interest from the 

13 date or dates that the bonus bids were paid by the record 

14 title holders. The Secretary shall make such payment from 

15 amounts that otherwise would be credited to miscellaneous 

16 receipts pursuant to section 9.’’. 

Æ 


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