Gov. Pat McCrory told oil industry executives yesterday that North Carolina is open for business.
“North Carolina is ready to get off the sidelines and into the energy business,” McCrory said during a panel discussion at the annual Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. “Domestic energy development provides states and the nation a vehicle to drive the economy forward through job creation, lowering energy costs for consumers and reducing our dependence on foreign energy supplies. Let’s work together to cut the red tape and open our waters to safe, responsible energy development.”
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McCrory was joined on the panel by Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and Abigail Ross Hopper , the director of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
During his remarks, McCrory covered four priority areas related to offshore oil and natural gas development, according to a press release from the governor’s office. He urged the federal government to review applications for seismic surveys in the Atlantic by the end of the year; stressed the need for equitable revenue sharing with energy-producing states; criticized the “one-size-fits-all” buffer area imposed in the Atlantic; and discussed the need for additional Atlantic lease sales in the next five-year program that starts in 2023.
