Obama Administration Withdraws Plan for Offshore Oil Drilling in the Atlantic
The Interior Department had previously proposed opening areas off the coasts of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
The Atlantic Ocean will remain off-limits to oil and gas drilling.
As part of a drilling plan covering from 2017 to 2022, the Obama administration is reversing a proposal that would havepermitted energy development at sites more than 50 miles from the shores of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
"We heard from many corners that now is not the time to begin leasing off the Atlantic Coast," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a call with reporters, citing conflicts with recreation, tourism and military tests, as well as coastal communities opposed to drilling. "It simply doesn’t make sense to move forward."
The Interior Department had issued a draft proposal in January 2015 that would have given the green light to oil and gas drilling in the areas no earlier than 2021. Federal offshore oil and gas leases elsewhere on the outer continental shelf produced 16 percent of the country's oil and 5 percent of the nation's natural gas in 2015, the agency said.
Drilling in the Arctic off the coast of Alaska remains on the table in three potential lease sales, Jewell said. The Interior Department will consider a range of options in the region – where icy waters, severe weather and sensitive fisheries and ecosystems can make drilling treacherous – from prohibiting any new drilling to permitting energy development alongside greater environmental protections.
"We are taking comment on various alternatives," Jewell said.
The latest five-year proposal will undergo 90 days of public comment. The previous draft proposal received more than 1 million comments.
Governors and state legislators along the mid-Atlantic, along with energy trade groups and conservative lawmakers in Congress, had hailed the proposal to open areas in the Atlantic Ocean to drilling, declaring it would provide revenue and jobs throughout the region.
The Interior Department estimates there are nearly 5 billion barrels of oil and 48 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that could be recovered from the Atlantic's outer continental shelf, though those estimates were based on surveys performed in the 1980s, and industry groups contend the amount is likely much higher.
"The Obama administration should be using the Gulf [of Mexico] as a blueprint to open the Atlantic to energy production and the hundreds of thousands of good jobs that come with it," Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said in a statement after Tuesday's developments.
Environmental groups and coastal communities, by contrast, vigorously opposed the drilling plan, fearing a spill would coat the region's beaches in crude and damage the tourism industry. Towns along the states' coasts enacted 106 resolutions calling on Obama to withdraw the drilling plan. The Pentagon also reportedly expressed concerns about the proposal, warning it could interfere with missile tests and other drills.
“The president’s proposal to scale back its offshore drilling plan reaffirms his dedication to protecting and conserving the great outdoors,” Arizona Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, the House Natural Resources Committee’s top Democrat, said in a statement.
The proposal was unveiled as oil and gas companies around the world have struggled with slumping oil prices. While "market conditions writ large" were "taken into account as one of many factors," Jewell said, "current oil prices were not a material factor in the decision we made today."
The drilling plan was developed over the course of three years. It could be reversed by the next president, though that would require developing a new five-year plan – "a laborious process," the administrator said.
By:
Alan Neuhauser
Source:
U.S. News
The Atlantic Ocean will remain off-limits to oil and gas drilling.
As part of a drilling plan covering from 2017 to 2022, the Obama administration is reversing a proposal that would havepermitted energy development at sites more than 50 miles from the shores of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
The Interior Department had issued a draft proposal in January 2015 that would have given the green light to oil and gas drilling in the areas no earlier than 2021. Federal offshore oil and gas leases elsewhere on the outer continental shelf produced 16 percent of the country's oil and 5 percent of the nation's natural gas in 2015, the agency said.
Drilling in the Arctic off the coast of Alaska remains on the table in three potential lease sales, Jewell said. The Interior Department will consider a range of options in the region – where icy waters, severe weather and sensitive fisheries and ecosystems can make drilling treacherous – from prohibiting any new drilling to permitting energy development alongside greater environmental protections.
"We are taking comment on various alternatives," Jewell said.
The latest five-year proposal will undergo 90 days of public comment. The previous draft proposal received more than 1 million comments.
Governors and state legislators along the mid-Atlantic, along with energy trade groups and conservative lawmakers in Congress, had hailed the proposal to open areas in the Atlantic Ocean to drilling, declaring it would provide revenue and jobs throughout the region.
The Interior Department estimates there are nearly 5 billion barrels of oil and 48 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that could be recovered from the Atlantic's outer continental shelf, though those estimates were based on surveys performed in the 1980s, and industry groups contend the amount is likely much higher.
"The Obama administration should be using the Gulf [of Mexico] as a blueprint to open the Atlantic to energy production and the hundreds of thousands of good jobs that come with it," Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said in a statement after Tuesday's developments.
Environmental groups and coastal communities, by contrast, vigorously opposed the drilling plan, fearing a spill would coat the region's beaches in crude and damage the tourism industry. Towns along the states' coasts enacted 106 resolutions calling on Obama to withdraw the drilling plan. The Pentagon also reportedly expressed concerns about the proposal, warning it could interfere with missile tests and other drills.
“The president’s proposal to scale back its offshore drilling plan reaffirms his dedication to protecting and conserving the great outdoors,” Arizona Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, the House Natural Resources Committee’s top Democrat, said in a statement.
The proposal was unveiled as oil and gas companies around the world have struggled with slumping oil prices. While "market conditions writ large" were "taken into account as one of many factors," Jewell said, "current oil prices were not a material factor in the decision we made today."
The drilling plan was developed over the course of three years. It could be reversed by the next president, though that would require developing a new five-year plan – "a laborious process," the administrator said.
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