Washington DC – US Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-La) today introduced legislation to protect critical domestic energy infrastructure and facilities including power plants, refineries, electric transmission lines, pipelines, and ports. The National Energy Infrastructure Security Fund would rely on revenues from Federal oil and natural gas leases.

"Never before in the history of our nation has it been more important to protect our energy distribution systems," said Sen. Landrieu. "To distribute the energy and access the electricity we need, we must move to provide increased security for all of the facilities and infrastructure which are instrumental in the production and distribution of our nation's energy supply. This bill uses a portion of the royalties from our energy production to protect those facilities."

By way of example, Landrieu points to the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the only off-shore oil terminal in the US. An estimated 13% of America's imported oil supply is taken in through LOOP and distributed nationwide by five pipelines . An interruption in that distribution process from either natural or hostile threats would de-stabilize our energy supply and have tremendous impact on our nation's transportation systems and refining capacity.

Landrieu's bill would require the governor of each state, as well as the mayor of Washington, DC, to submit to the Office of Homeland Security a plan for protecting energy infrastructure and facilities in his or her state. The plan would be approved by Tom Ridge, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security; the Secretary of Commerce; the Secretary of Energy; and the Secretary of Interior. Each governor would also be required to submit a federal cost estimate and to update the plan annually.

The financial details of the plan are as follows: • Fifty-percent of the proceeds from Federal oil and natural gas leases will be channeled into the National Energy Infrastructure Security Trust Fund. • Seventy-percent of that money will go to the new office of Homeland Security to provide to the governors of the various states and territories as annual grants to assist in the implementation of the state energy infrastructure security plan.

• The remaining 30% of the funds will be distributed among producing states for energy security activities along the coasts, as determined by each state. "It is clear that the energy infrastructure of our nation is a potential target for terrorist attack," said Sen. Landrieu. "We must move now to protect our energy sources and our supplies, or we will find ourselves more dependent on foreign energies. This plan will keep our most important supplies safe from outside attack."