Expedited Offshore Permitting Act of 2011

Expedited Offshore Permitting Act of 2011 - Amends the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to direct the Secretary of the Interior to approve or disapprove any application for a permit for drilling a well under an approved exploration or development plan for an oil and gas lease, or any application to amend a previously approved permit under such a lease, within 30 days after its submission.

Authorizes the Secretary to disapprove an application if any proposed activity under the permit: (1) would result in serious harm or damage to life (including fish and other aquatic life), to property, to any mineral (in areas leased or not leased), to the national security or defense, or to the marine, coastal, or human environment; and (2) cannot be modified to avoid such condition.

Requires the Secretary, after disapproving a permit application, if there is no other well on areas subject to the applicable leases capable of production in paying quantities, to pay to the record title holders of any of the applicable leases the amount of any bonus bid paid for the lease plus interest.

[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1115 Introduced in House (IH)]

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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Expedited Offshore Permitting Act of 
2011''.

SEC. 2. DEADLINE AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS FOR ISSUANCE OF OUTER 
              CONTINENTAL SHELF DRILLING PERMITS.

    Section 11(d) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 
1340) is amended by inserting ``(1)'' after ``(d)'', and by adding at 
the end the following:
    ``(2)(A) The Secretary shall approve or disapprove any application 
for a permit for drilling a well under an approved exploration or 
development plan for an oil and gas lease, or any application to amend 
a previously approved permit under such a lease, within 30 days after 
its submission, except that the Secretary may disapprove such 
application only upon a determination that--
            ``(i) any proposed activity under the permit would result 
        in any condition described in section 5(a)(2)(A)(i); and
            ``(ii) such proposed activity cannot be modified to avoid 
        such condition.
    ``(B) The Secretary may request additional information from the 
applicant prior to approving or disapproving such application, but the 
request for additional information must be received by the applicant 
within 30 days after submission of the application to the Secretary. 
Upon receipt of the additional information requested by the Secretary, 
the Secretary shall approve or disapprove the application within 15 
days in accordance with this subsection.
    ``(C) If the Secretary disapproves a permit application or an 
amended permit application pursuant to this subsection, and there is no 
other well on areas subject to the applicable leases capable of 
production in paying quantities, within 90 days after receipt of a 
final disapproval decision all record title holders of any of the 
applicable leases may request cancellation of the lease, and within 60 
days after receipt of such cancellation request the Secretary shall pay 
to the record title holders the amount of any bonus bid paid for such 
lease plus interest from the date or dates that the bonus bids were 
paid by the record title holders. The Secretary shall make such payment 
from amounts that otherwise would be credited to miscellaneous receipts 
pursuant to section 9.''.
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