In a reversal of a long-standing ban on most offshore drilling, President Barack Obama is allowing oil drilling 50 miles off Virginia's shorelines. At the same time, he is rejecting some new drilling sites that had been planned in Alaska. Obama's plan offers few concessions to environmentalists, who have been strident in their opposition to more oil platforms off the nation's shores. Hinted at for months, the plan modifies a ban that for more than 20 years has limited drilling along coastal areas other than the Gulf of Mexico. Obama was set to announce the new drilling policy Wednesday at Andrews air base in Maryland. White House officials pitched the changes as ways to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil and create jobs - both politically popular ideas - but the president's decisions also could help secure support for a climate change bill languishing in Congress. The president, joined by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, also was set to announce that proposed leases in Alaska's Bristol Bay would be canceled. The Interior Department also planned to reverse last year's decision to open up parts of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Instead, scientists would study the sites to see if they're suitable to future leases. Obama is allowing an expansion in Alaska's Cook Inlet to go forward. The plan also would leave in place the moratorium on drilling off the West Coast. In addition, the Interior Department has prepared a plan to add drilling platforms in the eastern Gulf of Mexico if Congress allows that moratorium to expire...more
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Obama to allow oil drilling off Virginia coast
In a reversal of a long-standing ban on most offshore drilling, President Barack Obama is allowing oil drilling 50 miles off Virginia's shorelines. At the same time, he is rejecting some new drilling sites that had been planned in Alaska. Obama's plan offers few concessions to environmentalists, who have been strident in their opposition to more oil platforms off the nation's shores. Hinted at for months, the plan modifies a ban that for more than 20 years has limited drilling along coastal areas other than the Gulf of Mexico. Obama was set to announce the new drilling policy Wednesday at Andrews air base in Maryland. White House officials pitched the changes as ways to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil and create jobs - both politically popular ideas - but the president's decisions also could help secure support for a climate change bill languishing in Congress. The president, joined by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, also was set to announce that proposed leases in Alaska's Bristol Bay would be canceled. The Interior Department also planned to reverse last year's decision to open up parts of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Instead, scientists would study the sites to see if they're suitable to future leases. Obama is allowing an expansion in Alaska's Cook Inlet to go forward. The plan also would leave in place the moratorium on drilling off the West Coast. In addition, the Interior Department has prepared a plan to add drilling platforms in the eastern Gulf of Mexico if Congress allows that moratorium to expire...more
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3 comments:
What a puzzle. We allow obama, saladczar, and CONgress to dictate
our abilities.
Captain may I? "allow?"
The President once again gives the illusion of progress. Lease sales are cancelled in Alaska on the grounds that more information is needed to see if leasing can be done in an environmentally-friendly manner. Yet, in these areas there are more than 500 active leases. He doesn't need to pull the plug on these leases as his Justice Department is getting ready to throw the case brought by the enviros which challenge the validity of those leases. Yet, he allows lease sales to go forward in Cook Inlet, the one place in Alaska that no one is interested in leasing. Multiple sales since the early 2000s have attracted no interest what-so-ever. The area that let locals want leasing, North Aletian Basin, is withdrawn until 2017, despite Congress and Pres Bush lifting the ban there just a few years ago. And the 10 Democratic senators from the states on the Atlantic Coast facing leasing will rapidly, I predict, move agressively to institute a Congressional moratorium through the budget process. So at the end of the day we end up with a net loss of drilling opportunites.
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