Sponsors (26)
The bill opens previously withdrawn offshore areas and shifts decision-making toward Congress to create jobs, boost domestic energy supply, and increase fiscal transparency — but raises significant environmental and climate risks, reduces executive flexibility for rapid protections, and transfers contentious energy-versus-conservation choices into a more political arena with new legal and fiscal uncertainties.
Energy workers, oil and gas companies, and fuel consumers gain access to previously withdrawn offshore areas for leasing, which could create jobs, spur investment, and increase domestic oil and gas production that may ease fuel price pressure over time.
State and local governments and Congress regain and strengthen legislative oversight over Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) access decisions, reducing reliance on unilateral executive withdrawals and increasing predictability of who decides leasing policy.
Coastal states and state treasuries receive clearer, earlier estimates of potential lost revenue from OCS withdrawals, improving budgeting, planning, and fiscal transparency.
Coastal, rural, and Indigenous communities face higher risk of oil spills, local environmental harm, and increased greenhouse gas emissions if reopened offshore areas are developed, threatening livelihoods, fisheries, and marine ecosystems.
Shifting substantive control from the executive to Congress and capping unilateral withdrawals politicizes decisions about energy development and conservation, potentially reducing neutral, expert-driven protections and leaving outcomes tied to legislative politics.
Capping and proceduralizing presidential withdrawals could impede rapid executive action to protect sensitive offshore areas in emergencies, prolonging exposure to environmental or security risks.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Voids specified Presidential OCS withdrawals and restricts future Presidential withdrawals by capping acreage/duration, requiring resource/economic/revenue assessments, and creating a congressional disapproval process.
Introduced January 16, 2025 by Clay Higgins · Last progress January 16, 2025
Voids a set of prior Presidential withdrawals that removed specific unleased areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from oil, gas, and mineral leasing, restoring those areas as not withdrawn. It does this without adding immediate new agency obligations tied to those particular restored areas. Tightens and constrains the President’s future authority to withdraw unleased OCS acreage by imposing size and duration caps (150,000 acres per withdrawal, 20 years), a cumulative cap of 500,000 acres without Congress, and new pre-withdrawal study and reporting requirements (resource, economic/energy/national security, and federal revenue impact assessments). Establishes a specific congressional disapproval process for withdrawals, including a narrowly defined joint resolution form, committee referral rules, a Senate discharge mechanism, and expedited floor procedures for consideration of such disapproval resolutions.