Special thanks to Richard Charter
Fox News
Updated March 31, 2010
Critics Claim Offshore Drilling Plan a Half-Step Toward Energy Independence
President Obama’s decision to open up the nation’s shores to new oil drilling drew complaints from both sides of the aisle Wednesday, as environmentalists and congressional Republicans alike claimed the move would do little for America’s energy independence.
President Obama’s decision to open up the nation’s shores to new oil drilling drew complaints from both sides of the aisle Wednesday, as environmentalists and congressional Republicans alike claimed the move would do little for America’s energy independence.
The president, in announcing the plan to allow drilling off the Eastern seaboard and potentially the western coast of Florida, said he anticipated the pushback. Yet, on the heels of a health care reform victory that cleared the way for work on other domestic challenges, the president defended his proposal, saying that “homegrown fuels” are needed to move away from foreign oil and help “transition” to more clean-energy sources.
The announcement appeared in part to be a bid for GOP support — but Republicans swiftly panned the policy change as a weak, half-hearted attempt at domestic oil exploration. Obama lifted a 20-year moratorium on exploration and drilling on the Atlantic seaboard from the northern tip of Delaware down to central Florida and approved it for a new section of the Gulf of Mexico and the Cook Inlet in Alaska. But exploration is expected to last years, and no lease sales will be held before 2012. It may take up to a decade to move oil and natural gas to marketplace.
In addition, no exploration or drilling would be permitted along the entire West Coast, even though Congress green-lighted it in 2008.
“The Obama administration continues to defy the will of the American people, who strongly supported the bipartisan decision of Congress in 2008 to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling not just off the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, but off the Pacific Coast and Alaskan shores as well,” House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a written statement.
“Keeping the Pacific Coast and Alaska, as well as the most promising resources off the Gulf of Mexico, under lock and key makes no sense at a time when gasoline prices are rising and Americans are asking ‘Where are the jobs?'”
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., called the plan a “smokescreen” that would delay new exploration until at least 2012 and include a “fraction” of the resources in the Bush administration’s plan.
“Unfortunately, this is yet another feeble attempt to gain votes for the president’s national energy tax bill that is languishing in the Senate,” he said, in reference to the climate change legislation Democrats have been trying to pass.
The plan would open up drilling 50 miles off Virginia’s coast — and the state could see drilling leases sooner than 2012 for verified reserves. In addition, the Interior Department has prepared a plan to add drilling platforms in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, 125 miles off the coast of Florida, if Congress allows a moratorium to expire.
But the proposed leases in Alaska’s Bristol Bay will be canceled. And the Interior Department also planned to reverse last year’s decision to open up parts of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Instead, scientists will study the sites to see if they’re suitable for future leases.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the overall plan a step in the right direction, “but a small one that leaves enormous amounts of American energy off limits.” But while Republicans said Obama wasn’t going far enough, Democrats and environmentalists claimed he was going too far — and wouldn’t shake the country’s dependence on foreign oil in the slightest.
“We cannot achieve meaningful energy independence through our own oil reserves,” Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-Del., said, noting the country’s oil reserves pale in comparison to how much Americans consume.
Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune also said “drilling our coasts will (do) nothing to lower gas prices or create energy independence.”
And Phil Radford, director of Greenpeace, called the announcement a “betrayal” of the people who voted for Obama.
Obama will offer environmentalists something they like, though, on Thursday when the administration cements sweeping emissions and fuel economy standards that will impact U.S. auto manufacturers. The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation on Thursday are expected to sign the final rule establishing emissions and fuel economy standards for the U.S. auto fleet. Those standards call for new vehicles to average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. It will cover model years 2012 through 2016, and is estimated to cost up to $1,300 per vehicle.
Fox News’ Major Garrett and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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http://thebristolbaytimes.com/article/1013bristol_bay_drilling_gets_a_reprieve
BRISTOL BAY TIMES
Bristol Bay fishermen and members of local Native corporations reacted with gratitude and relief after today’s announcement that the Obama administration decided to halt plans for offshore drilling in Alaska’s Bristol Bay and southeast Bering Sea.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that, as part of a comprehensive strategy for strengthening the nation’s energy security and reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil, the Obama administration will expand oil and gas development and exploration on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, while protecting fisheries, tourism, and places off U.S. coasts that are not appropriate for development, a press release said.
“In our quest to secure our energy future, we must not lose the places and values that set our nation apart,” said Salazar. “Bristol Bay is a national treasure that we must protect for future generations.”
The reprieve from drilling in Bristol Bay is part of a broader decision by Salazar on the current and proposed Five-Year Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas leasing programs and includes drilling in other areas of the nation.
“When Secretary Salazar visited Bristol Bay this past April, community leaders and residents voiced overwhelming opposition to drilling in waters critical to our subsistence way of life and our fisheries-based economy. We are thankful and grateful he took to heart the message that this is truly a place that’s not appropriate for oil drilling,” said Verner Wilson, acting executive director of Nunamta Aulukestai, an association of eight Bristol Bay Native Village corporations.
The administration reinstated the presidential withdrawal for Bristol Bay from offshore drilling until 2017. It had been in place under former administrations and was removed under President George W. Bush in 2007. The decision will cancel a planned 2011 lease sale in the region (known as North Aleutian Basin Sale 214) that would have put 5.6 million acres of rich Alaskan waters – including vital habitat and fishing grounds for some of the world’s most sustainable and lucrative fisheries – at risk, said a press release from Alaska Marine Conservation Council.
Bobby Andrew, a Bristol Bay village elder also with Nunamta Aulukestai, had a view farther than 2017.
“The people of Bristol Bay are thankful for the decision by Secretary Salazar but our message to Congress and the President is that we need permanent, permanent, permanent protection so this threat to our way of life is curtailed not only for the current generation, but also for future generations.”
David Harsila, president of the Alaska Independent Fishermen’s Marketing Association also called for permanent protection.
“Bristol Bay’s salmon resource is like no other on Earth and provides thousands of jobs to fishermen across Alaska and the west coast. Our organization and hundreds of member fishermen are thrilled with this decision, but want to see something permanent so we don’t have to fight this battle again,” stated Harsila.
The administration’s strategy does support exploratory drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in the Arctic Ocean, exploration in much of the Atlantic Ocean OCS, some of the Florida coast and expanded development and production in the Gulf of Mexico. For more information visit the Department of Interior Web site, www.doi.gov.
BAYTIMES STAFF can be reached at editor@alaskanewspapers.com, or by phone at 907-348-2438
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http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=398&ArticleID=69122
Daily Astorian
Oregon
Recharging debate, Obama expands offshore drilling – but not on West Coast
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – Shaking up years of energy policy and his own environmental backers, President Barack Obama threw open a huge swath of East Coast waters and other protected areas in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska to drilling Wednesday, widening the politically explosive hunt for more homegrown oil and gas.
Obama’s move allows drilling from Delaware to central Florida, plus the northern waters of Alaska, and exploration could begin 50 miles off the coast of Virginia by 2012. He also wants Congress to lift a drilling ban in the oil-rich eastern Gulf of Mexico, 125 miles from Florida beaches.
Still off limits: the entire Pacific seaboard, an action that drew praise from Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski. And in a nod to conservation, Obama canceled oil exploration in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, deeming the area a national treasure.
For this oil-dependent nation, the decision could start to reshape far-reaching economic and national security policies, affecting where the U.S. gets the fuel for its cars, heating and energy-gulping industry.
For a president on a roll following a big health care win, Wednesday’s drilling declaration was both aggressive and pragmatic. Even with a push for cleaner energy sources and efficient cars – and with promises of protection for ecosystems and coastal tourism – the nation still needs more oil, Obama said.
“The answer is not drilling everywhere all the time,” Obama said in an event at Andrews Air Force Base. “But the answer is not, also, for us to ignore the fact that we are going to need vital energy sources to maintain our economic growth and our security.”
Inside politically conscious Washington, Obama’s announcement was viewed, too, as a play to win Republican support for a comprehensive climate change bill. Obama needs GOP help to move legislation through the Senate that would limit carbon emissions, a key priority, and his decision on drilling drew at least a bit of Republican applause.
Republican George W. Bush pushed for years to expand offshore drilling. He and Congress lifted bans on some drilling in 2008, when gasoline prices hit record levels. But Obama’s plan is narrower than Bush’s, which also would have opened up oil and gas leasing areas off California and in the North Atlantic.
Obama got a predictable pummeling Wednesday from environmentalists, who sarcastically compared him to Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate whose oil-promoting speech at the Republican National Convention in 2008 famously drew chants of “Drill, Baby, Drill!”
Any big changes to environmental policy – particularly oil drilling – tend to touch off the bitter debate that Obama says he wants the country to end. His support for exploratory drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of Alaska, for example, drew outrage from the Center for Biological Diversity as a threat to polar bears. “Short of sending Sarah Palin back to Alaska to personally club polar bears to death, the Obama administration could not have come up with a more efficient extinction plan for the polar bear,” said Brendan Cummings, the center’s senior counsel.
More broadly, the conservation group Oceana declared Obama was “unleashing a wholesale assault on the oceans.” Obama has been a supporter of drilling as part of a broader energy agenda, and the White House played down any talk of wooing Republicans.
But it is clear the president wants to show the opposition party that he is willing to come toward them with hopes the GOP will do the same in return. He has already done so on nuclear energy. However, winning a broad climate and energy bill remains an enormous lift for Obama in this election year.
“He could certainly point to this: ‘Look, I’ve moved away from where we were even a year ago, so let’s work something out,”‘ said Guy Caruso, an energy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Department of Energy administrator. “Whether it’s enough? I doubt it. But it’s a step.”
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, offered just that kind of response but also questioned whether Obama’s government will actually follow through and open areas for oil production. GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a key negotiator with the White House on the energy bill, said he listened to Obama with “great interest.”
As for the fallout from environmental activists, White House spokesman Bill Burton said, “None of this should have been a surprise to anybody. We’ve been talking about all these different elements for a very long time and the president is following through on promises.”
While the first lease sale for an area 50 miles off the Virginia coast could come as early as 2012, development in other areas of the South Atlantic would still be years away, according to the Interior Department’s leasing plans released Wednesday. The department said it plans seismic studies, environmental reviews and public meetings in the regions involved to determine if leases should be offered in those areas between 2012 and 2017.
Obama’s plan to open more of the eastern Gulf of Mexico would require Congress to lift a drilling moratorium it imposed several years ago. An energy bill before the Senate would open an even wider area of the eastern Gulf than Obama is proposing, allowing drilling within 45 miles of some of Florida’s coast.
Access to oil and gas in South Atlantic waters also would probably meet stiff resistance from the coastal states unless Congress first enacts a plan to share the billions of dollars in potential revenue from lease sales and oil and gas development. And that’s not easy.
Lawmakers from coastal states that would benefit have been pushing for that, but some other senators argue that proceeds from oil and gas resources in federal waters should go to the U.S. Treasury.
Obama is trying to push several levers at once. As part of his oil announcement, Obama said his government would release new requirements Thursday requiring automakers to build more fuel-efficient cars and trucks. The standards include first-ever rules on vehicle greenhouse gas emissions, which have been blamed for global warming. For a bit of imagery, Obama stood in front of a Navy F-18 fighter scheduled to fly on Earth Day with a half-biomass fuel mix. He implored people to accept a middle ground between viewing drilling as a cure-all or claiming it has no place in an energy portfolio. Said the president: “This issue is just too important to allow our progress to languish while we fight the same old battles.”
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h1sB0OGKHXVLuRKN0Hg2uLY6mGiQD9EPMGL04
Obama backs oil drilling along Atlantic seaboard
By PHILIP ELLIOTT (AP) – 6 hours ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he’s expanding offshore oil drilling along the Atlantic coast, arguing that America must break its dependency on foreign oil and rely more on “homegrown fuels and clean energy.”
Obama chose Andrews air base on the outskirts of Washington for his announcement, telling a military audience “this is not a decision that I’ve made lightly.”
The move reverses longstanding government policy. Obama is allowing drilling along a large portion of Virginia’s shoreline and is considering it for a large chunk of the Atlantic seaboard. He said “there will be those who strongly disagree,” but pledged that it will be done “in ways that balance the need to harness domestic energy resources and the need to protect Americas’s natural resources.”
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) – In a reversal of a long-standing ban on most offshore drilling, President Barack Obama is allowing oil drilling off Virginia’s shorelines and considering it for a large chunk of the Atlantic seaboard. At the same time, he’s 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’s blueprint would allow Interior to go ahead with oil and gas leases on tracts 50 miles off the coast of Virginia. Those leases had been approved for development but were held up by a court challenge and a departmental review.
In addition, an administration official said Obama would allow exploration along the south Atlantic and mid Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf “to support energy planning” – a step toward potential leasing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Obama’s announcement.
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. Lawmakers in 2008 allowed a similar moratorium to expire; at the time President George W. Bush lifted the ban, which opened the door to Obama’s change in policy.
Under Obama’s plan, drilling could take place 125 miles from Florida’s Gulf coastline if lawmakers allow the moratorium to expire. Drilling already takes place in western and central areas in the Gulf of Mexico.
The president’s team has been busy on energy policy and Obama talked about it in his State of the Union address. During that speech, he said he wanted the United States to build a new generation of nuclear power plans and invest in biofuel and coal technologies.
“It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development,” he warned.
Obama also urged Congress to complete work on a climate change and energy bill, which has remained elusive. The president met with lawmakers earlier this month at the White House about a bill cutting emissions of pollution-causing greenhouse gases by 17 percent by 2020. The legislation would also expand domestic oil and gas drilling offshore and provide federal assistance for constructing nuclear power plants and carbon sequestration and storage projects at coal-fired utilities.
White House officials hope Wednesday’s announcement will attract support from Republicans, who adopted a chant of “Drill, baby, drill” during 2008’s presidential campaign.
The president’s Wednesday remarks would be paired with other energy proposals that were more likely to find praise from environmental groups. The White House planned to announce it had ordered 5,000 hybrid vehicles for the government fleet. And on Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department are to sign a final rule that requires increased fuel efficiency standards for new cars.