Petroleum Industry Calls Interior Secretary’s Oil Claims ‘Fundamentally Absurd’

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s claim that the oil and gas industry is not taking advantage of the leases it already holds is "fundamentally absurd," says Erik Milito of the American Petroleum Institute (API). During a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, CNSNews.com asked Milito about Secretary Salazar’s claim on Mar. 12 that the oil and gas industry is not using 72 million acres of leased land and ocean and is “sitting on 7,000 permits.” “That’s fundamentally absurd and that’s the kind of rhetoric we need to end as quickly as possible,” Milito said. API’s Milito dismissed Salazar’s claims and said that even if leases are in place, permits are needed to start the process that results in productive oil and gas operations and cited Alaska as an example. “The government, over the course of the past five years, has not provided the permits to allow the industry to develop any – let alone one – of hundreds of leases that they currently have in Alaska,” Milito said...more