Outer Continental Shelf Production

There are currently 26 planning areas in the Outer Continental Shelf, 15 in Alaska, 4 along the Pacific Coast, 3 in the Gulf of Mexico and 4 in the Atlantic. Currently, only 36 million acres, an area only slightly larger than the State of Louisiana itself, is actively leased. So a very small portion of the Outer Continental Shelf is actively leased, only 2 percent of the entire OCS. There's a tremendously vast area of the Outer Continental Shelf that should be explored and looked at for what resources it might hold, either traditional or non-traditional resources, whether energy or otherwise. Since 1990 our proven reserves have multiplied dramatically each time the government completes a survey. Swift new advances in drilling technology are making more of what we find easier to extract. More drilling means more energy and more high paying jobs, more security, more reliability and a stronger economy. We need to act and turn this promising potential into a reality.