Deepwater royalty relief product of 3.5 year U.S. political effort

The Outer Continental Shelf Deep Water Royalty Relief Act, passed as part of the Alaska Power Administration Sale Act, provides a royalty holiday for some deepwater oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico. The offshore oil industry worked 3.5 years to lobby Congress to grant incentives for drilling in the deepwater Outer Continental Shelf. The history of debate over the law and its predecessors is traced through the legislative process.
Against the backdrop of more than 20 years of increasingly stringent environmental regulation, ever-expanding exploration and development moratoria on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), and reductions in producer tax incentives, [...]