To allow the Secretary of the Interior to authorize geological and geophysical surveys for offshore oil and gas exploration.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9004 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 9004

  To allow the Secretary of the Interior to authorize geological and 
       geophysical surveys for offshore oil and gas exploration.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 28, 2022

   Mr. Graves of Louisiana introduced the following bill; which was 
             referred to the Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To allow the Secretary of the Interior to authorize geological and 
       geophysical surveys for offshore oil and gas exploration.

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

SECTION 1. OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION LICENSING.

    The Secretary of the Interior shall authorize geological and 
geophysical surveys related to oil and gas activities on the Gulf of 
Mexico Outer Continental Shelf, except within areas subject to existing 
oil and gas leasing moratoria. Such authorizations shall be issued 
within 30 days of receipt of a completed application and shall, as 
applicable to survey type, comply with the mitigation and monitoring 
measures in subsections (a), (b), (c), (d), (f), and (g) of section 
217.184 of title 50, Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on 
January 1, 2022), and section 217.185 of title 50, Code of Federal 
Regulations (as in effect on January 1, 2022). Geological and 
geophysical surveys authorized pursuant to this section are deemed to 
be in full compliance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (16 
U.S.C. 1361 et seq.) and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 
1531 et seq.), and their implementing regulations.
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