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EDITOR'S CHOICE: (Washington, D.C.)Press Release from the office of U.S. Sen. David Vitter, May 5 2011: Senator Vitter said  today, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the moratorium on Gulf of Mexico energy production, that he will be introducing the Agency Overreach Moratorium Act. The legislation would require congressional approval for expansion of federal regulations restricting energy exploration on federal lands and the Outer Continental Shelf that could provide domestic natural resources and generate revenue to the federal treasury that could be used to pay down the deficit.

“The moratorium was one of the most poorly thought out, mismanaged and ill-conceived policy decisions regarding domestic energy production in the history of this country,” Vitter said. “Look no further than $3.98 per gallon of gas or the seven rigs that have left the Gulf and five that are not working to see how damaging the moratorium has been to our economy. Enough is enough, and my bill would prevent those overreaching federal actions that would further destroy jobs on our domestic energy businesses.”

Watch Sen. Vitter’s floor speech here

 Vitter’s legislation would do the following:

• Prevent any agency from retroactively withdrawing any permit on federal lands or the OCS that should have been utilized to produce or harvest domestic natural resources or create one or more jobs without congressional approval.

• Prevent any agency from prohibiting access to resources on federal lands and the OCS without congressional approval.

• Allow no designation under the Antiquities Act to be implemented without congressional approval.

• Require that any agency action that would expand a federal regulation for permitting on federal lands or make a designation of federal lands under any law to require the Commerce Department to first do a full economic analysis to see if it has the potential to reduce revenue to the federal treasury, and how it would impact property rights and existing contracts.

Vitter recently introduced the 3-D Act: The Domestic Jobs, Domestic Energy, and Deficit Reduction Act of 2011.  The 3-D Act would create more than 2 million jobs, $10 trillion in economic activity and $2 trillion in federal tax receipts (conservative 30-year estimates) by unleashing our vast domestic energy potential. The 3-D Act currently has 30 cosponsors.