Bush-Era Offshore Drilling Plan Is Set Aside
http://www.truthout.org/021109EA
MSNBC.com: "The Obama administration on Tuesday overturned another
Bush-era energy policy, setting aside a draft plan to allow drilling
off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts."
"To establish an orderly process that allows us to make wise
decisions based on sound information, we need to set aside" the plan
"and create our own timeline," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
announced in a statement.
Alleging that the Bush administration "had torpedoed" offshore
renewable energy in favor of oil and natural gas, Salazar said he was
extending the public comment period by 6 months.
"The additional time we are providing will give states,
stakeholders, and affected communities the opportunity to provide
input on the future of our offshore areas," he said.
Salazar also ordered Interior Department experts to compile a
report on the Outer Continental Shelf's energy potential - not just
oil and gas, but also renewables like wind and wave energy.
"In the biggest area that the Bush administration's draft OCS
plan
proposes for oil and gas drilling - the Atlantic seaboard, from Maine
to Florida - our data on available resources is very thin, and what
little we have is twenty to thirty years old," he said. "We shouldn't
make decisions to sell off taxpayer resources based on old
information."
The Interior Department oversees 1.75 billion acres on the Outer
Continental Shelf, an area that's about three fourths the size of the
entire United States.
Environmentalists and some tourism-dependent coastal states
oppose
the drilling, citing the potential for spills and urging an emphasis
on renewable energy instead. Energy companies counter that drilling
has become safer over the years and that royalties from any finds
would be in the billions of dollars.
"I intend to issue a final rulemaking ... in the coming months,
so
that potential developers know the rules of the road," Salazar said.
"This rulemaking will allow us to move from the 'oil and gas only'
approach of the previous administration to the comprehensive energy
plan that we need."
"We need a new, comprehensive energy plan that takes us to the
new
energy frontier and secures our energy independence," he added. "We
must embrace President Obama's vision of energy independence for the
sake of our national security, our economic security, and our
environmental security."
Moratorium Ended Last Year
The Bush administration had authorized the Interior Department to
open areas off both coasts to oil and gas drilling during a five-year
period. That move came after a moratorium on drilling there expired
last year. Offshore drilling is already allowed in the Gulf of
Mexico.
Both Obama and Salazar have said that expanding offshore oil
drilling should be worked out with Congress as part of a broad energy
blueprint, and not independent action by the Interior Department.
The move comes a week after the Interior Department shelved
energy
leases on 130,000 acres near two national parks and other federally
protected lands in Utah.
In Congress, Democrats have long wanted to rewrite the rules on
royalties from offshore drilling, arguing that energy companies have
been paying too little.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., praised the move as an end to "drill
first and ask questions later".
"The tide has turned back towards reason and a comprehensive
energy plan for our country that sees promise in the winds and the
tides, not just in drills and rigs," added Markey, who chairs the
select committee on energy independence and global warming.
But House Republicans last week urged Obama not to close areas
off
the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines.
"We respectfully urge that you allow the five-year offshore
drilling plan to continue because it is vital to our economy," the
lawmakers, led by House Republican leader John Boehner, said in a
letter. "Our country needs to remain on the path to American energy
independence, and we believe this is a critical and achievable goal."
Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, which
represents the large oil companies, said Salazar's announcement
"means
that development of our offshore resources could be stalled
indefinitely."
31 lease sales were proposed
The preliminary plan drawn up by the Bush administration would
have authorized 31 energy exploration lease sales between 2010 and
2015 for tracts along the East Coast and off the coasts of Alaska and
California.
The Republican lawmakers cited a study that concluded the
untapped
offshore oil and gas reserves would create more than 160,000 jobs by
2030 and provide the government with $1.7 trillion in royalties on
the
oil and gas drilled.
Congress last year failed to renew the long-standing moratorium
on
oil and gas exploration across 85 percent of the nation's Outer
Continental Shelf, leaving all waters potentially open to drilling.
Then, four days before leaving office, officials in the Bush
administration issued the draft plan, which called for energy leases
in areas that until recently had been off limits for a quarter-
century.
The Interior Department estimates - using 30-year-old studies -
that the offshore waters lifted from drilling bans last year contain
at least 18 billion barrels of oil, about half of it off California.
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