ess, including baseline studies, resource assessments, tract selections, environmental impact statements and other aspects.

April 6, 1976.-A request for an injunction to block the scheduled OCS lease sale No. 39 in the northern Gulf of Alaska was denied in the U.S. District Court. The suit had been brought by the State of Alaska and the City of Yakutat.

April 13, 1976.-The House Select Committee completed markup on H.R. 6218 and ordered favorably reported the bill for House

consideration.

April 13, 1976.-The Interior Department conducted OCS lease sale No. 39 in which 81 of 189 tracts offered in the northern Gulf of Alaska were sold for high bids totaling $571.8 million.

April 27, 1976.-The U.S. Department of the Interior selected 225 tracts totaling 1.28 million acres off the coasts of North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida for a proposed offshore lease sale (OCS No. 43). It will be the first lease sale in the part of the Atlantic.

May 4, 1976.-The House Ad Hoc Select Committee reported H.R. 6218-redesignated as S. 521, the OCS Lands Acts Amendments of 1976 (H. Rept. 94-1084).

May 26, 1976.-The final environmental impact statement on the proposed mid-Atlantic offshore oil lease sale was released by the Bureau of Land Management and was submitted to the Council on Environmental Quality for the required 30-day review.

June 21, 1976.-A final report of an investigation conducted by the Federal Power Commission indicated that the American Gas Association had underestimated the gas reserves on 31 leases in the Gulf of Mexico by 54 percent. Based upon a sample of 4 percent of the acreage under lease, the survey indicated reserves of 1.7 trillion cubic feet.

July 26, 1976.-The President signed S. 586, into law (Public Law 94-370), amending the Coastal Zone Management Act for a Coastal Impact Fund for coastal States for amelioration of impacts from offshore development.

August 13, 1976.-A Federal Judge ordered a temporary injunction against the first Atlantic OCS lease sale (OCS No. 40) stating, inter alia, that the Department of the Interior failed to adequately consider potential adverse impacts on coastal areas.

August 17, 1976. The first Atlantic OCS lease sale No. 40 drew bids of $1.1 billion, about twice as much as expected. An appeals court lifted the temporary stay at the last minute allowing the lease sale to proceed. 154 tracts were offered off the costs of Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey; however only 93 tracts were eventually leased. September 20, 1976.-The Conference Committee reported out S. 521 for further consideration by both Houses (H. Rept. No. 94-1632). September 28, 1976.-House voted (198 to 194) to recommit the conference report on S. 521 to the committee on conference thus ending any further possibility of passage during the 94th Congress.

November 16, 1976.-Lease sale No. 44 offered 254,488 acres in the Central and Western Gulf. However, only 43 tracts, covering 178,127 acres for a total of $379,148,962 in bonus bid money.

December 15, 1976.-The Argo Merchant ran aground off Nantucket, Mass. releasing 7.6 million gallons of heavy, industrial crude

oil. A total of $1.4 million was spent on the spill, including rescue operations, cleanup and loss of equipment. In the face of 50-knot winds and 15-foot waves, the incident demonstrated the relative infancy of oil spill containment and cleanup technology.

December 27, 1976.-The Liberian registered tanker, Olympic Games, ran aground in the Delaware River, spilling 133,500 gallons of light Arbian crude oil.

December 29, 1976.-The U.S. Geological Survey approved a Continental Offshore Stratigraphic Test (COST) well to be drilled on the Georges' Bank. It was announced that COST No. G-2 would be conducted on a cost-shared basis by a group of nineteen companies at an estimated cost of $14 million. It was expected that the offstructure test, located about 116 miles off Nantucket Island, would provide geological information of use in evaluating offshore tracts, scheduled

to be offered in the first lease sale in that area.

January 10, 1977.-Senator Henry Jackson introduced the text of S. 521, as reported by the committee of conference in the waning days of the 94th Congress, which became S. 9, to amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 and other purposes.

January 11, 1977.-H. Res. 97, was submitted, considered and agreed to. The resolution authorized the Speaker to establish an Ad Hoc Select Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf to consider and report to the House on H.R. 1614. The bill would establish a policy for the management of oil and natural gas in the Outer Continental Shelf, to protect the marine and coastal environment, and to amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. Also, Congressman Murphy of New York, introduced H.R. 1614.

January 12, 1977.-The Department of Interior issued a revised leasing schedule.

January 17-18, 1977.-The Senate Interior Committee held 2 days of hearings on the nomination of Cecil D. Andrus for the post of Secretary of Interior. Mr. Andrus urged Congress to quickly pass OCS legislation. He indicated that he would slow the existing Government timetable for OCS development; he would stress environmental concerns; he would require "due diligence" in the development of Federal oil and gas leases; and he would ensure that state officials have more input into DOI decisions on OCS development.

January 18, 1977. The Department of Interior announced an OCS lease sale for the Cook Inlet on February 23, 1977. The proposed sale covered 120 tracts totaling approximately 683,182 acres in the southern two-thirds of Cook Inlet between Kalgin Island on the north and the Barren Islands on the south.

January 18, 1977.-The Interior Department announced that it was making available a list of 217 tracts, totaling 1,141,818 acres, being considered for a possible oil and gas lease sale on the southern California Shelf, tentatively scheduled for March 1978. Tract selection for proposed OCS sale No. 48 follows a July 16, 1976 request for nominations by the Bureau of Land Management.

January 24, 1977.-Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus, citing the national interest, urged all operators on Federal onshore and offshore leases to increase production of natural gas from existing wells, consistent with safety and sound environmental practices, in an effort to help alleviate the winter gas shortage.

February 7, 1977.-Secretary Andrus announced the canceling of the sale of oil and gas leases in Alaska's Cook Inlet that had been scheduled for February 23, in Anchorage. It was indicated that a decision regarding the rescheduling of the sale during 1977 would be made within 90 days. Secretary Thomas Kleppe had announced the sale 2 days before the change in administrations.

February 17, 1977.-U.S. District Court Judge Jack B. Weinstein rescinded the mid-Atlantic lease sale No. 40 which had been held August 17, 1976. Subsequently, 93 tracts covering 529,466 acres were leased for a total of $1.128 billion in bonuses. Judge Weinstein charged that DOI ignored the rights of local governments; failed to consider the environmental impacts of offshore oil pipeline routes; overstated production estimates; understated production costs; and therefore violated the National Environmental Policy Act.

February 17, 1977.-Secretary Cecil Andrus ordered a comprehensive review of gas production in the Gulf of Mexico to insure that the maximum amount of gas is available from the OCS consistent with safety and good conservation practices. This action was prompted by a contracted preliminary investigation of four fields in the Gulf of Mexico, which represent 10 percent of gas production in the Gulf. The report found that production had sharply fallen over the past 2 years; it was substantially below the maximum efficient rate of production (MER's); and that the MER's themselves had been substantially reduced over the past 2 years.

February 18, 1977.-The Interior Department announced that it was delaying the call for nominations and comment on the General Pacific OCS sale until the area can be better defined. The off-coast Oregon, Washington, and northern California area could include about 60 million acres.

February 22, 1977.-The Federal Register gave notice that about 25,000 barrels of royalty oil from OCS lands would be available for sale to small refiners as of July 1, 1977, with next offerings on an annual basis.

February 24, 1977.-The Ad Hoc Select Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf held its first formal organizational meeting since being reconstituted.

March 1, 1977.-U.S. enforcement of the 200-mile jurisdictional limit to delineate a "Fishery Conservation Zone" became effective.

March 1, 1977.-Secretary Cecil D. Andrus asked the Justice Department to appeal the Federal court order issued by Judge Weinstein to void the Baltimore Canyon lease sale.

March 1, 1977.-President Čarter sent to Capitol Hill his energy reorganization bill.

March 3, 1977.-The Ad Hoc Committee on the OCS began its hearings on H.R. 1614, focusing on the views of the Carter administration. Testimony was given by Secretary of the Interior, Cecil Andrus, and the Administrator of F.E.A., John O'Leary.

March 3, 1977.-A 6-month extension for Aminoil Oil Co., to develop a Federal lease in the Gulf of Mexico was refused by the Interior Department. In this precedent-setting move, the company was given until March 7, 1977, to find a rig to drill a seventh exploratory well. The move marked a determined effort on the part of Interior to enforce "due diligence".

March 7, 1977.-Monte Canfield, Director, Energy and Minerals Division, GAO, briefed the House Ad Hoc Select Committee on OCS on Lease Sale No. 35, off southern California.

March 7, 1977.-The General Accounting Office released a report on "Outer Continental Shelf Sale No. 35-Problems Selecting and Evaluating Land to Lease." The GAO stated that inadequate resource information on the tracts had been obtained by Interior due among other things to pressure to lease a predetermined number of acres. Hence, unreliable tract values were determined both high and low, and estimated revenues were overestimated by five times. Taking place on December 11, 1975, the sale netted $417 million; and 56 oil and gas leases were let. GAO recommended passage of H.R. 1614 (S. 9) to improve OCS development.

March 7, 1977.-Tenneco, Inc., the giant natural resources conglomerate, conceded that as much as 300 billion cubic feet of natural gas has been diverted to one of its own subsidiaries since 1963. This gas should have been obligated for sale in the interstate market, instead the gas generated higher intrastate rates.

March 11, 1977.-Interior announced the creation of a departmental committee to review more than 60 Federal oil and gas leases that are currently not in production as part of a "due diligence" campaign. March 21, 1977.-A Panamanian tanker with 546,000 gallons of oil aboard split apart about 125 miles southeast of Wilmington, N.C. March 23, 1977.-Further enforcing "due diligence," the Interior Department ordered two companies holding seven leases to deliver details concerning their non-producing oil and gas leases during a brief extension through April 1.

March 24, 1977.-Secretary Andrus announced approvingly that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York had granted the request for expedited action on the part of the Department concerning the Weinstein decision. Until the outcome of the appeal is determined, all action by the USGS on applications for exploration permits in the sale area was to be delayed.

March 28, 1977.--Additional administration witnesses were heard by the House OCS Committee. Witnesses included Charles Warren, Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality; E. H. Clark, Jr., Member of the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere; Dr. Robert White, Administrator of NOAA, and Mr. Robert Knecht, Acting Associate Administrator of Commerce's Office of Coastal Zone Management.

April 4, 1977.-The House OCS Committee continued hearings on H. R. 1614, with Administration witnesses from the Department of Defense, the Department of Labor and the U.S. Coast Guard.

April 5, 1977.-The House OCS Committee finished the first phase of its hearings on H.R. 1614, centered on the views of the executive branch. Appearing were witnesses from the Department of State, the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Trade Commission.

April 11, 1977.-A memorandum of understanding on offshore safety was signed by the USGS and the U.S. Coast Guard. The agreement will coordinate safety requirements concerning the design, construction, and operation of U.S. flag mobile offshore drilling units on the OCS.

April 12, 1977.-The Federal Register announced the availability for review of a draft environmental impact statement on the proposed Western Gulf of Alaska OCS Sale No. 46. A decision on the timetable of any such proposed sale of 3.2 million acres off Kodiak Island was reserved.

April 20, 1977.—Interior announced the release of a draft environmental impact statement on the proposed OCS lease sale No. 45 in the Gulf off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana of 120 tracts totaling 582,856 acres, scheduled for the winter of 1977. The process was initiated by a tract selection announcement, whereby the BLM in consultation with the USGS handled the tract selection without first calling for nominations and comments.

April 22, 1977.-The blowout on the Bravo Platform, operated by the Phillips Petroleum Co. in the Ekofisk field of the Norwegian North Sea occurred. Over a 7-day period the blowout spilled over 147,000 barrels of oil and deposited an oil slick over as much as 300 square miles, before it was capped by the famed oil well disaster expert "Red” Adair and his crew. The blowout demonstrated the environmental threat posed by offshore drilling, the inadequacy of offshore pollution cleanup technology and the inadequacy of onsite safety equipment and regulation.

April 29, 1977.-The President releases his "National Energy Plan." specifically endorsing legislation (H.R. 1614; S. 9) to revise the OCS Act of 1953, as an essential part of a comprehensive energy program.

May 1, 1977. It was reported that the Canadian Government was postponing a decision on whether to permit drilling for oil in the Arctic waters of the Beaufort Sea pending a study of the North Sea Bravo blowout.

May 2, 1977. The FEA charged that, during a period from 1973 to 1975, 20 oil firms inflated the costs of imported crude oil by as much as $336 million in transactions with their foreign affiliates.

May 2, 1977.-A USGS study detailed hazards to oil and gas derelopment off the cost of southern California, including the Santa Barbara Channel. The three main types of hazards identified were seismicity and faulting; sea-floor instability; and hydrocarbon seeps.

May 2, 1977.-The USGS made public a new offshore platform structural inspection program to insure as much as possible that offshore platforms are constructed to withstand the forces of nature, as offshore drilling moves out to deeper, and more hostile "frontier"

areas.

May 4. 1977.-The House Merchant Marine Committee ordered reported H.R. 6803, a bill to establish a single national liability and compensation system for oil spill cleanup and compensation for dam

ages.

May 9-12, 1977.-The House OCS Committee held the second phase of its hearings on H.R. 1614, a bill to reform the 1953 OCS Lands Act. Witnesses were heard from the oil and gas industry. related service industries, environmental groups, state and local government leaders, unions, associations, citizens and other interested groups.

May 11, 1977.-The Senate Committee on Energy and National Resources began markup on the OCS reform bill S. 9 (companion to H.R. 1614).

May 13, 1977.-The U.S. Coast Guard proposed new safety standards for all tankers operating in U.S. ports to prevent accidental oil