Two-thirds of oil and gas leases in Gulf inactive

WASHINGTON (AP) - More than two-thirds of offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico are sitting idle, neither producing oil and gas, nor being actively explored by the companies who hold the leases, according to an Interior Department report released Tuesday.

Those inactive swaths of the Gulf could potentially hold more than 11 billion barrels of oil and 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the Interior Department said in the report obtained by The Associated Press.

President Barack Obama ordered the report earlier this month amid pressure to curb a spike in gasoline prices following instability in the oil-rich Middle East. The White House said Obama would outline his plans for America's energy security in a speech Wednesday.

The inefficiencies detailed in the Interior Department report also extend to onshore oil and gas leases on federal lands, with 45 percent of those leases deemed inactive. The department said it is exploring options to provide companies with additional incentives for more rapid development of oil and gas resources from existing and future leases.

"These are resources that belong to the American people, and they expect those supplies to be developed in a timely and responsible manner and with a fair return to taxpayers," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in the report.

Congressional Democrats have already introduced "Use it or Lose it" legislation that would impose an escalating fee on the oil and gas companies that hold leases they're not actively using.

The oil and gas industry disputed the administration's findings.

"The majority of these leases are always turned back because we can't find resource in commercial quantities," said Jack Gerard, the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. "To suggest that we're sitting on our hands is a pure distraction."

Tuesday's report comes against the backdrop of rising gas prices as the busy summer travel season approaches. Republicans put the blame for the increased costs on Obama's policies, pointing to the slow pace of issuing permits for new offshore oil wells in the wake of last summer's massive Gulf spill and an Obama-imposed moratorium on new deepwater exploration, though experts say more domestic production wouldn't immediately impact prices.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said that he would introduce three bills to increase offshore energy production, including one that would speed up the permitting process by setting a 30-day timeline for the administration to approve or deny applications.

GOP leaders also hit hard on Obama's comments last week in Brazil, where he said the U.S. wants to be a "major customer" for the huge oil reserves Brazil recently discovered off its coast.

"Here we've got the administration looking for just about any excuse it can find to lock up our own energy sources here at home, even as it's applauding another country's efforts to grow its own economy and create jobs by tapping into its own energy sources," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

Obama has rejected the criticism of his energy policies, saying that domestic oil production rose to a seven-year high last year.

"Any notion that my administration has shut down oil production might make for a good political sound bite, but it doesn't match up with reality," Obama said during a White House news conference earlier this month.

At a speech Tuesday evening at The Studio Museum in New York City, Obama pointed to rising gas prices to underscore the need for a comprehensive energy plan.

"We've still got a lot of work to do on energy," he told an audience of donors at the Harlem museum. "The last time gas prices were this high was 2008 when I was running."

Obama contrasted his approach to an energy slogan popular among Republicans.

"The other side kept talking about 'drill, baby, drill.' That was the slogan," he said. "What we were talking about was breaking the pattern of being shocked by high prices" and then lulled into inaction.

Obama has long said that oil and gas remain critical components of U.S. energy policy, while also promoting clean energy technologies like wind, solar and nuclear. In his State of the Union address last January, Obama said he wants 80 percent of U.S. electricity to be generated by clean energy sources by 2035.

Nuclear power has come under more intense scrutiny in recent weeks after an earthquake and tsunami in Japan severely damaged a nuclear power plant there. Despite the uncertainty at that facility, Obama says he remains committed to developing nuclear power in the U.S.

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Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.