Louisiana has been sent more than $156 million in revenue from offshore oil and gas production in the 2022 fiscal year in the Gulf of Mexico, the Interior Department announced Thursday, with most of that money slated for hurricane risk reduction projects.
It is part of more than $353 million being distributed to four Gulf Coast states under a federal law that governs the process. The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, or GOMESA, requires 37.5% of the funds paid to the federal government by owners of wells drilled in federal waters to be given to Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, with each state’s share determined by which wells are within 75 miles of their coastlines.
The federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which finances projects at federal and state parks and wildlife preserves nationwide, receives 12.5% of the revenue, with the other 50% going to the U.S. Treasury.
Of Louisiana’s share, 80% is mandated by the state Constitution to go to the Louisiana Coastal Protection Trust Fund, overseen by the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, and is used primarily to fund hurricane risk reduction projects.
The other 20% is divided among Louisiana’s 19 coastal parishes, also based on distance to the offshore wells. That means the state trust fund will receive about $125 million, while the parishes will split about $32 million:
- Assumption Parish – $1 million
- Calcasieu Parish – $1.7 million
- Cameron Parish – $2 million
- Iberia Parish – $1.6 million
- Jefferson Parish – $2.5 million
- Lafourche Parish – $1.6 million
- Livingston Parish – $1.3 million
- Orleans Parish – $2.2 million
- Plaquemines Parish – $3 million
- St. Bernard Parish – $1.5 million
- St. Charles Parish – $1.1 million
- St. James Parish – $1 million
- St. John the Baptist Parish – $1 million
- St. Martin Parish – $1.2 million
- St. Mary Parish – $1.3 million
- St. Tammany Parish – $1.8 million
- Tangipahoa Parish – $1.3 million
- Terrebonne Parish – $2.4 million
- Vermilion Parish – $1.6 million
The other states will receive:
- Alabama, $49.7 million
- Mississippi, $51.9 million
- Texas, $95.5 million
The revenue-sharing law includes a provision that caps annual revenue distributed to all states at $375 million a year. This year’s total did not reach the cap level.
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Lower Energy Costs Act, authored by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, which he said will lower the price of gasoline – and thus inflation – and also remove regulatory obstacles blamed for slowing continued production of oil, natural gas and minerals.
That bill also would increase the Gulf oil and gas revenue sharing for states to 50% and remove the cap, which, if in effect today, would have resulted in the state getting $166.6 million, and the parishes receiving $42.7 million.
The bill also includes language that would provide a 50% share of revenue from offshore wind energy to coastal states and their coastal parishes and counties.
That legislation must still be approved by the U.S. Senate and faces a likely veto from President Joseph Biden, who has said its roll-back of climate-change initiatives and other provisions would actually result in higher energy costs. The burning of oil and gas also contributes greatly to global warming and related sea level rise, adding to the considerable climate change risks Louisiana faces.
“As more GOMESA-eligible production comes online, GOMESA revenues are going up, and the need to remove the $375 million cap is becoming clearer every year,” said Chip Kline, chairman of the state coastal authority. “Louisiana is one of the top energy producers in the country, and the additional funding that improvements to revenue sharing would bring will allow us to sustain and grow our strong coastal program over the next decade.”
This year’s state offshore revenue-sharing money is likely to assist in funding 40 hurricane risk reduction projects that were in the 2023 coastal annual plan and another 32 in the 2024 annual plan, which must be approved during the upcoming legislative session.
The projects include portions of the 98-mile-long Morganza-to-the-Gulf levee system being built in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes around the Houma region, design of a proposed ring levee around portions of Slidell, and design and construction of parts of the Upper Barataria levee system in St. Charles and Lafourche parishes.
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