If the current administration has its way, rigs like this may soon be a thing of the past.
From Wednesday’s Washington Post, and NOLA.com
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Wednesday afternoon that the Obama administration will not allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as part of the next five-year drilling plan, reversing two key policy changes President Obama announced in late March.
"We are adjusting our strategy in areas where there are no active leases," Salazar told reporters in a phone call, adding that the administration has decided "not expand to new areas at this time" and instead "focus and expand our critical resources on areas that are currently active" when it comes to oil and gas drilling.
In March--less than a month before the BP oil spill--Obama and Salazar said they would open up the eastern Gulf and parts of the Atlantic, including off the coast of Virginia, to offshore oil and gas exploration. On both of those new areas, the administration said it would start scoping to see if oil and gas drilling would be suitable. The eastern Gulf remains closed to drilling under a congressional moratorium, but the White House indicated it would press to lift the moratorium if necessary.
Wednesday's announcement is sure to please environmentalists while angering oil and gas companies as well as some lawmakers from both parties who have pressed for continued offshore energy exploration in the wake of massive Gulf of Mexico spill.
Salazar said while the administration will still allow offshore drilling in both the central and western Gulf of Mexico and in the Arctic, it will delay lease sales planned for March and August in the gulf to conduct additional environmental reviews, and will prepare a new environmental assessment of Shell's proposal to drill in Alaska's Beaufort Sea next year. Shell officials warned that the additional review could jeopardize its ability to explore for oil and gas in the Arctic in 2011.
Stephen Sears, chairman of Louisiana State University's Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering, said the narrowing of drilling options for oil and gas companies, even if not directly affecting the state, has adverse economic consequences.
"There are a lot of Louisiana businesses that supply resources, people and equipment for off-shore drilling rigs, so that can have a long-term effect on our economy," Sears said.
Still, he said, if federal regulators do as Salazar suggests -- concentrate on existing areas now open to drilling -- perhaps it can lead to the renewed issuance of drilling permits that have been slowed, even since the administration dropped its moratorium on deepwater drilling Oct. 12.
The early word, however, wasn't promising with Salazar confirming earlier reports that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement was delaying planned lease sales for the central Gulf, including Louisiana, scheduled for March and August. He said they would be delayed until at least late 2011, when he anticipates completion of environmental studies.
Salazar said Wednesday's decision was based on science. But it's also clear that expanded domestic drilling is no longer seen by the administration as a bargaining chip for cap-and-trade legislation designed to reduce global warming. The president came out for expanded drilling in March -- just one month before the BP accident, hoping it would help him win support for global warming legislation.
But cap and trade never made it through the Democratic controlled Senate, sunk by opposition from Republicans and moderate Democrats such as Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. With Republicans securing control of the House, it's clearly a non-starter in the new Congress.
The president no longer needs the domestic-drilling bargaining chip, and after the BP spill, the action announced Wednesday is likely to be popular with the Democratic base.
And while Obama critics say he's putting the squeeze on the oil and gas industry, it's also clear that portions of the drilling plans cancelled Wednesday -- most notably drilling off the Florida coast -- probably could not have won Senate approval, even with the GOP gains.
Salazar's announcement, made in a teleconference with reporters, immediately was condemned by oil industry officials and oil-state members of Congress, but praised by environmental groups.
"As our country looks for ways out of the hole of lackluster economic growth and job creation, today's decision shows that this administration would rather keep digging than take the ladder to increased economic prosperity offered by developing our nation's domestic energy resources," said Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.
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