At the recent Coastal Energy Summit, experts and policy makers were looking offshore for future development. But whether it be wind, oil, or natural gas, those resources are located in federal waters, meaning the profits from the leases go to the national government. Governor Pat McCrory is part of a coalition which aims to bring revenue from offshore energy to the state.
Governor Pat McCrory is the chair of the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition, which aims to expand revenue sharing. The federal government already shares the profits from offshore energy with states like Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Governor McCrory says revenue sharing could bring billions of dollars to the state over the next fifteen years:
"I firmly believe that a fairly large percentage of that money should go to the coastal region of the Carolinas because they’re the ones who are investing the infrastructure and actively involved. And we’ve got major dredging issues and port issues and replenishment of beach issues, which are important to the travel and tourism industry, and I think that’s where some of the money should definitely go to."
But Governor McCrory says that before North Carolina can share in the revenue, the state must first use seismic testing to gauge the offshore energy potential. He says he hopes to begin that process within the next two years.