The Obama administration recently reversed
its 2015 plan to open up waters off the coasts of Virginia, the
Carolinas and Georgia to oil drilling. Officials claim the new decision
to ban oil drilling will protect national security. It will do the
opposite.
The administration, under constant
pressure from environmentalists, has long had an ambivalent view of
offshore oil exploration. Plans to open up this part of the Atlantic
Ocean for drilling have been on the drawing board for years. This recent
decision leaves them in the wastebasket.
Last year, the administration’s opposition appeared to have softened. In January 2015, the White House released a statement proposing to auction drilling rights in up to 104 million acres of the mid- and South-Atlantic in 2021. At the time, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell noted: “This plan takes a balanced approach to oil and gas development. … It protects areas that are just too special to develop.”
Now, 14 months later, the administration
has reversed course. What makes this time unique is the administration’s
reliance on the supposed concerns of the Department of Defense as the
reason not to drill.
According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management report
announcing the administration’s reversal, the “DoD recommends that
significant acreage of the mid- and South-Atlantic Program Area not be
made available for placement of oil and gas structures due to conflicts
with DoD activities.” Such activities include Navy port facilities on
the East Coast and its reliance on neighbouring waters for the conduct
of training exercises.
Yet the Pentagon has no problem opening almost all of these waters to leases for drilling. Its 2015 assessment
deemed no more than 5% of the area a “No Oil and Gas Activity” zone. It
also crossed off another 5% as a “No Permanent Surface Structure”
zone—no offshore rigs.
This seems to suggest that the Pentagon
is comfortable with oil rigs and activity in 90% of these waters. The
Obama administration’s supposed objection isn’t based on reasonable
evidence.
For more proof, consider the Pentagon’s 2010 assessment. Nearly identical in substance to the 2015 analysis, the report presented no general objection to drilling in the Atlantic.
...Drilling in these Atlantic waters would, however, be a
boon to our nation’s security. Many of the world’s major oil and gas
producers are countries with a history of hostility towards the United
States, such as Iran and Russia. As long as we import oil from such
countries, our security is compromised.
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